Francie Mae
Member
- Feb 22, 2025
- 57
- 45
- Parrots
- Bare-eyed cockatoo
Hey everyone,
For the sake of ensuring the important part of this message gets across, I’ll write the main point here: What is a possible cause for watery stool and sneezing? What’s the process of weaning a bird? At the end of the post I’ll attach pictures.
Okay, context, because it was really not my intention to bring home an unweaned bird, since everyone here advised me not to and I really wanted to do the right thing, even if it meant not bringing her home. I thought she was of the proper age and that we were fine to bring her home. It wasn’t until my dad went to pick up the bird that he was informed she was not weaned. Also, she was not from a breeder—she was being rehomed by a woman who decided she couldn’t take care of her, since she had upcoming travel. Kind of crazy to me because the bird is so young—she was only hatched 2/3 months ago, how could a person not be aware of imminent travel plans within that time frame? Why bring home a baby cockatoo at all?
Anyway. My dad brought her home. He has the formula and her feeding schedule; he’s been throwing himself into learning about weaning birds through videos, articles, and the likes. But that’s different from actual experience. He knows that weaning is not an easy task, but he said he just had such a bad feeling about the seller that made him not want to leave without Mischief (our baby’s name is Mischief, Missy for short). Besides, I don’t think the seller knew what she was doing, either, if it’s true what she said and a friend gave her the bird. For all I know she could’ve been lying, though. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, because it very well could’ve been the slight language barrier that made our exchange choppy (my mom’s parents don’t speak the best English either, so I’m partial towards that explanation in most cases) but I also want to take proper precautions in the case that there was some intentional misinformation going on. Plus, my dad has a lot of experience with animal handlers, so I also have respect for his intuition.
Missy is home, now. She chirps when we talk to her, and she reached her head forward towards my hand and cooed. Sometimes, though, she sort of whines—a drawn out whining chirp. I don’t know exactly what that means. I want to avoid making her nervous and possibly sick from anxiety; I can’t tell if she wants my company because she’s a baby without her flock, or if she’s overstimulated and needs to be alone. Her stools are very loose, sometimes literally just water. She’s also been sneezing. We had a vet appointment for Thursday at 4pm, but my dad found another one for tomorrow morning. She seems otherwise okay. There isn’t discharge around her nostrils or eyes, and she doesn’t appear lethargic. Hard to say for sure, though, because she’s in a new environment. I hear her chirping in the other room. Also, she doesn’t want her formula; I’ve bottle fed sickly kittens before, who are usually very adamant that they do not want formula and get it all over their faces and all over me, but parrots are not kittens.
If anyone has any tips or suggestions, I’d love to hear. All of us are more than willing to put in the time, work, and money to ensure her health. My parrot experience is limited, but I’ve fostered many kittens with severe illnesses who needed around the clock care. And while chickens and parrots are definitely different, so I can’t say my chicken knowledge will exactly come in handy, it took a lot of time and dedication to keep our newly hatched silkie chicks alive. I skipped out on seeing friends and sometimes even class to make sure they didn’t freeze or overheat. And my dad works from home (don’t get me wrong, he took great care of the chicks) but I wanted to be there myself). We can apply that same dedication to Mischief.
(Side note: I honestly have no idea how newly hatched chickens ever survive in the wild, especially chickens like Silkies. Absolutely no survival skills or temperature tolerance, let me tell you).
I also wanted to say thank you for all of the lovely messages I’ve gotten. It’s really made the grieving process easier to bear, and it’s helped my dad. After reading him some of your guys’ comments I visibly saw him look a little better, and that’s an amazing gift that I can’t express my gratitude for enough. I’m getting myself grief counseling; hopefully he will, too. I’ll live with the weight of the life Grim should’ve lived for the rest of mine, but I have the good memories of him, too. Thinking about him hanging upside down and yelling at us so we’d look at him brings me to tears, even as I write this, in both anguise and joy. His picture is in a locket that also has a picture of my childhood dog, which I wore for months after she passed, and am wearing again, now. I hope they’re together, somewhere.
As for Mischief, I want to be the best for her that I can be. I’ll keep you guys updated on the vet appointment, but if you have any thoughts in the meantime, I’d love to hear. I’m very grateful for you all
(In the pics she’s in Grim’s cage—it’s hers now, but my dad cleaned it following proper protocol and using the right materials so we can ensure she doesn’t have any chemical exposure from cleaning agents nor exposure to any of Grim’s potential germs. My dad was very paranoid about the whole process. The door Mischief’s cage is next to is not the door Grim flew out of; it’s a door we don’t open because the path it leads to is virtually useless, but sunlight comes through the window, which we wanted for Grim and want for her. Not featured in the pictures is her stool that’s just water; it’s colorless, at least that’s how it looks on the newspaper).
For the sake of ensuring the important part of this message gets across, I’ll write the main point here: What is a possible cause for watery stool and sneezing? What’s the process of weaning a bird? At the end of the post I’ll attach pictures.
Okay, context, because it was really not my intention to bring home an unweaned bird, since everyone here advised me not to and I really wanted to do the right thing, even if it meant not bringing her home. I thought she was of the proper age and that we were fine to bring her home. It wasn’t until my dad went to pick up the bird that he was informed she was not weaned. Also, she was not from a breeder—she was being rehomed by a woman who decided she couldn’t take care of her, since she had upcoming travel. Kind of crazy to me because the bird is so young—she was only hatched 2/3 months ago, how could a person not be aware of imminent travel plans within that time frame? Why bring home a baby cockatoo at all?
Anyway. My dad brought her home. He has the formula and her feeding schedule; he’s been throwing himself into learning about weaning birds through videos, articles, and the likes. But that’s different from actual experience. He knows that weaning is not an easy task, but he said he just had such a bad feeling about the seller that made him not want to leave without Mischief (our baby’s name is Mischief, Missy for short). Besides, I don’t think the seller knew what she was doing, either, if it’s true what she said and a friend gave her the bird. For all I know she could’ve been lying, though. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, because it very well could’ve been the slight language barrier that made our exchange choppy (my mom’s parents don’t speak the best English either, so I’m partial towards that explanation in most cases) but I also want to take proper precautions in the case that there was some intentional misinformation going on. Plus, my dad has a lot of experience with animal handlers, so I also have respect for his intuition.
Missy is home, now. She chirps when we talk to her, and she reached her head forward towards my hand and cooed. Sometimes, though, she sort of whines—a drawn out whining chirp. I don’t know exactly what that means. I want to avoid making her nervous and possibly sick from anxiety; I can’t tell if she wants my company because she’s a baby without her flock, or if she’s overstimulated and needs to be alone. Her stools are very loose, sometimes literally just water. She’s also been sneezing. We had a vet appointment for Thursday at 4pm, but my dad found another one for tomorrow morning. She seems otherwise okay. There isn’t discharge around her nostrils or eyes, and she doesn’t appear lethargic. Hard to say for sure, though, because she’s in a new environment. I hear her chirping in the other room. Also, she doesn’t want her formula; I’ve bottle fed sickly kittens before, who are usually very adamant that they do not want formula and get it all over their faces and all over me, but parrots are not kittens.
If anyone has any tips or suggestions, I’d love to hear. All of us are more than willing to put in the time, work, and money to ensure her health. My parrot experience is limited, but I’ve fostered many kittens with severe illnesses who needed around the clock care. And while chickens and parrots are definitely different, so I can’t say my chicken knowledge will exactly come in handy, it took a lot of time and dedication to keep our newly hatched silkie chicks alive. I skipped out on seeing friends and sometimes even class to make sure they didn’t freeze or overheat. And my dad works from home (don’t get me wrong, he took great care of the chicks) but I wanted to be there myself). We can apply that same dedication to Mischief.
(Side note: I honestly have no idea how newly hatched chickens ever survive in the wild, especially chickens like Silkies. Absolutely no survival skills or temperature tolerance, let me tell you).
I also wanted to say thank you for all of the lovely messages I’ve gotten. It’s really made the grieving process easier to bear, and it’s helped my dad. After reading him some of your guys’ comments I visibly saw him look a little better, and that’s an amazing gift that I can’t express my gratitude for enough. I’m getting myself grief counseling; hopefully he will, too. I’ll live with the weight of the life Grim should’ve lived for the rest of mine, but I have the good memories of him, too. Thinking about him hanging upside down and yelling at us so we’d look at him brings me to tears, even as I write this, in both anguise and joy. His picture is in a locket that also has a picture of my childhood dog, which I wore for months after she passed, and am wearing again, now. I hope they’re together, somewhere.
As for Mischief, I want to be the best for her that I can be. I’ll keep you guys updated on the vet appointment, but if you have any thoughts in the meantime, I’d love to hear. I’m very grateful for you all
(In the pics she’s in Grim’s cage—it’s hers now, but my dad cleaned it following proper protocol and using the right materials so we can ensure she doesn’t have any chemical exposure from cleaning agents nor exposure to any of Grim’s potential germs. My dad was very paranoid about the whole process. The door Mischief’s cage is next to is not the door Grim flew out of; it’s a door we don’t open because the path it leads to is virtually useless, but sunlight comes through the window, which we wanted for Grim and want for her. Not featured in the pictures is her stool that’s just water; it’s colorless, at least that’s how it looks on the newspaper).
