Cockatiel Egg and Chick Thread

[SnowyShiloh]

They never fed Teddy and his cries for food went down to little wimpers, then silence Poor baby. I took him out of the nest box and hand fed him, he fell asleep within about 2 minutes after being fed.

 

[JadeIcing]

*hugs*

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I have a good update, a bad one, and a really bad one. Good first: Phoenix's crop feels good again. It could be getting soft sometimes because the parents may drink more water than usual before feeding him sometimes. He's up to 58 grams now- twice as much as his older siblings. His little peepers are pretty much completely open now.

Bad news: Neeja was fed by his parents 5 hours ago and his crop has drained of liquids but not seeds.

Really bad news: Teddy is weakening. He's shivering and his cry is quieter. He's getting dehydrated because his crop isn't emptying- it's as empty now as it was this morning when I fed him. I don't think he's going to make it much longer

 

[JadeIcing]

*hugs*

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Thinking on it more, I suspect Teddy may have aspiration pneumonia from one of the many times I emptied his crop I'm not surprised, it was a very real risk every time I emptied it. Each time I had to choose between him maybe dying if I emptied his crop for him or definitely dying if I didn't. Aspiration pneumonia can take several days to develop and it would explain why his chirp sounds trilling and watery. Poor little guy

 

[JadeIcing]

*squeeze huggles*

 

[SnowyShiloh]

My little Teddy Bird just died in my hands :bawl: I'm so sorry I couldn't save you, baby.

 

[Myia09]

I am so sorry :hug:

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I'm shocked. I didn't think he was that bad yet. I went to check on them and Teddy was sitting there kind of flailing his head around the same way Kieran did before he died. I picked him up and held him as he died Poor baby. I'm so sad that he spent half of his tiny life ill. Today was his 14 day hatchday. I should have started socializing him today instead of holding his little body. I think Teddy would have grown up into a really sweet birdy- he was never as hissy as the others and didn't hiss at me at all over the past couple days. Just cried and cried because he was hungry since his body was working against him I can't believe it's only been 14 days, it felt like he was here a long time. Today his feathers started coming out of their sheaths too, it looked like he was wearing tiny paintbrushes. I wish I'd got a photo.

Here's Teddy nuzzling my hand for food:

Doing the same thing at 2 days old:

3 days old:

right after he hatched:

Mama and daddy were both there when he came out of his egg:

starting to break open his egg:

chirping inside his egg:



Fly free, sweet baby. I'm so sorry.

 

[TinysMom]

Oh no....I really did not want to see this here. I don't know if I can bring myself to come back to this thread after all the losses I've/we've had lately. (I lost one rabbit this week - plus the losses on the forum).

You may have to update me privately ... I don't know.

I am so sorry for your losses though.

 

[GoinBackToCali]

I'm so sorry..

 

[myLoki]

I'm so sorry. ray:

t.

 

[LuvaBun]

Oh No, poor little Teddy

I am so sorry, Shiloh. You worked so hard on doing everything you could for him. Sometimes, things just aren't meant to be

Jan

 

[landi]

So Sorry poor little Teddy

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I made Teddy and Kieran a Rainbow Bridge thread I know it doesn't make sense, but I hadn't made one for Kieran before because I was afraid of jinxing the other babies or something.

I'm still worried about Phoenix. Little dude gained 13 grams today. That seems really excessive. Normal is 6-10. Maybe 13 is ok, I don't know. His crop is quite full and kind of soft again.

Little Neeja still has not emptied all the seeds from his crop from when Poppet fed him 14 hours ago. A healthy bird would be able to empty a crop like that in less than 4 hours! I've supplemented him with runny formula ever since and the seeds are slowly leaving his crop. I think I'm going to hold off on letting the parents feed him for a couple more days.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

This may be utterly illogical based on the fact that both Kieran and Teddy have already passed away from slow crop, but I changed my mind about giving Neeja until Friday morning or we'll take him to be euthanized. I want to give him more time. I will be out of state from next Thursday through early Tuesday morning. We will see how he's doing next Wendesday before I leave. If he gets worse, we'll have him put to sleep before then.

I can't believe how much I miss Teddy.

 

[hartleybun]

:hug:

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Thanks for the condolences, guys. It really means a lot to me.

I have another moment of guilt. I was very tired and decided I could take a little nap before the babies were due for their meds (and Neeja for his feeding) at 11 am. I set the timer and everything. I woke up at 1 pm! So we were more than 2 hours late once you factor in the time to make everything ready to medicate and feed I'm sorry, babies! Neeja's crop was almost completely empty and he'd been fed 9 hours earlier. What was in his crop though was a few more seeds left from yesterday's feeding from his parents. They've been in there wayyy too long. I don't think seeds go bad as fast as other food though and his crop was drained of formula which is good.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I feel like I should mention that the reason I slept so long this afternoon and missed regular med and feeding time is that I was asleep on the couch so I would be close to Neeja whose brooder is on the coffee table. I have a digital probe thermometer in the brooder and have an alarm on it set to go off if it gets too hot. The alarm is loud and I didn't want it to disturb him in case it went off, so I put it next to me on the couch. The Thermometer also has a timer and I set it for an hour, but since it was next to me on the couch, I rolled on it and stopped it! It was paused at like 35 minutes to go.

Little Phoenix seems more aware of his surroundings today and not nearly as sleepy. He's 11 days old. He's hissing at me lots. When he's hissing or alert, his little crop pin feathers point straight up and it's quite cute.

Here is the ultra chunky (64 grams, he's 20 grams less than his parents and 34 more than Neeja!) Phoenix:

Neeja's developments for the day are that he's learning to chirp (it sounds kind of funny and he chirps randomly in the middle of crying for food) and the tips of his feathers are just coming out of their sheaths. He's so super tiny but his feather development is on target. In some ways I wish it wasn't because his body is using the nutrition he's receiving to grow feathers instead of grow him!

 

[mistyjr]

:hugsquish::hug1 So sorry for your loss!! Hugs to ya!