Cockatiel Egg and Chick Thread

[SnowyShiloh]

Yay, thanks for reading Nela! I was replying to your new bunny thread when you were replying to this one

How it works with feeding the babies is that the parents eat food and water, and store it in their crop, which is like a holding tank that drains into the stomach. So the food isn't digested at all, it's just chewed up and soaked in water. Then they feed that to the babies. Something that a lot of people don't realize is that it's not actually vomiting- birds CAN vomit up from their stomachs partially digested food (Little Bird did it once), but that's not what the babies are fed. Birds don't really chew up small seeds like millet, they just kind of swallow them and then they get digested. So the millet fed to the babies isn't chewed up at all and the babies' digestive systems are supposed to digest it. Kieran is digesting seeds fine, but Teddy isn't. There are whole millet seeds in his poop! Hopefully the acidophilus will help him. The breeder lady said it may be because of the Grape Seed Extract I was putting in the water- she told me to do that because we were a little worried about the parents having a bacterial problem in their guts and grape seed extract kills the bad bacteria. I didn't think of this at the time, but the grape seed extract of course also kills some of the good bacteria and that could be why Teddy isn't digesting right. To tell the truth, I'm a tiny bit annoyed that I was told to give them grape seed extract when it could cause problems like this. I put it in their water just to be safe, but it may have done more harm than good. Now that there's no grape seed extract and the good bacteria instead, hopefully things will clear up for him! It's amazing how attached I've gotten to the little fuzz balls!

 

[TinysMom]

Um....when do they turn cute?

 

[Nela]

Awww okay I see, thank you for explaining Shiloh. I didn't realize that the babies' digestive tracts actually had such a role at this age. I thought basically the food was processed by the mum and the babies system just gathered the nutrients. Hopefully, there won't be anymore issues and he will be digesting it okay. There are times when I miss having the turtledoves and having babies as well. It's a really rewarding experience, cockatiels are especially fun! Hahaha I remember how noisy they get when hungry :shock: Are these your first babies? I don't remember...

 

[MyLOVEABLES!!]

TinysMom wrote:

Um....when do they turn cute?

:rofl:

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Haha, Peg! Well, cute is kind of a matter of opinion, so here's a page that has a picture of a baby tiel every day, from hatching to when it gets all feathered.

http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/watch-me-grow.html

I think the babies are cute now (I'm biased), but to me any animal is cuter as soon as its eyes open, which should be around 3 days from now for Kieran. They go from kind of ugly, to looking still ugly but like punk rockers, to kind of scraggly when their feathers are almost grown in, to undeniably cute... when they're actually the size of their parents. Heh. Baby birds actually get HEAVIER than their parents at one point. Arthur and Poppet are pretty small birds (they both weigh about 90 grams, some tiels weigh 120 plus), so I doubt these babies will be hulks when they grow up.

 

[TinysMom]

great website....can stunted babies survive or are they like peanut rabbits that can't make it?

I gotta admit - baby rabbits aren't always cute at first either...but I'll never tell their mamas that.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Baby bunnies are undeniably cuter than baby birds at first. To be honest, I think baby bunnies are always cuter than baby birds. I mean, I like birds and all, but what's cuter than a baby bunny?!

Stunted chicks have a hard time surviving. They're so delicate, so much can go wrong... In a lot of ways, birds are even more fragile than bunnies. A stunted chick that survives is very likely to have health issues as an adult. My Little Bird was stunted and he had lifelong health issues and died at the age of 3 after I sunk several thousand dollars into his vet care. I think his growth was stunted BECAUSE of his problems, rather than that his problems were caused by him being stunted. His breeder was very attentive and fought for him to live... then I did the same when he came to me!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

It's baby bird photo update time!

All 3 chickies with the remaining egg last night:

The rest of these were just taken a few minutes ago. Kieran chirping/wanting food:

Teddy:

Neeja all fluffed up:

Babies together (left to right, youngest to oldest):

Baby pile!

All 3 are here, I think Neeja is the one at the back:

 

[TinysMom]

I forget - are you going to keep them all?

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Peg, it depends on how many baby birds we end up with! I certainly WANT to keep them all. 6 cockatiels is a lot though and if we leave the parents together, I'm quite certain there will be more to come.

Our rough plan is to get the chicks DNA sexed, then when the babies wean, pair Arthur up with a boy chick and Poppet with a girl. That way they can't have babies anymore but will still have a friend to bond with. Cockatiels bond, but they aren't super picky about who they're with for the most part, so Arthur and Poppet shouldn't freak out at not being together anymore. They'll still be able to see each other and come out to play together. They will probably bond with their baby-friend pretty quickly. We'll see. I want to keep 1 chick as a singleton so it will bond strongly to me instead of another bird (he'll still be able to play with the others but won't be caged with another bird). So that's 5 birdies. If we do end up with a 6th, I would probably have a really hard time selling one baby... So might end up keeping all of them anyway. I don't know! We'll see! I just want to make sure to have 1 baby all for myself to be my special little buddy Also the idea of selling the chicks at this point feels like selling my own children. I will have to find really good owners if we do sell any of them.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Haha, Paul is so funny. On the cockatiel forum I post on, there's a lady whose cockatiels laid eggs at the same time as our birds. As in, our first egg was laid on June 2nd, and so was hers. She had 5 eggs too, laid every other day, just like ours. One of her eggs died too. Very parallel! She was getting worried because here I am with 3 chicks, and none of her birds' eggs had hatched... until tonight! Hooray! I showed Paul a picture of their new baby. His reply? "Our babies are cuter." Biased much?

 

[hartleybun]

:inlove: aaa my fix of baby birds! we have swallows nesting in our shed - 3 chicks also. as they chose the darkest, most inaccessible corner we havent been able to get pics. they are quite used to us pottering around tho' when we realised they were nesting chris put tarpaulin under it to catch any fledglings.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Donna, I bet those baby birds are so cute!

Guess what's also cute? A 4th baby cockatiel! The parents left the nest to eat, so of course I swooped in to examine the babies. The last egg is pipping! I can hear the wee one chirping inside too Doesn't stop getting exciting! Hopefully that means he'll hatch soon. Wow, 4 babies!

In my inspection of the babies, I found that Kieran is starting to sprout feathers Well, they're still under the skin, but he has tiiiny little dark gray marks where pin feathers are forming on his wings. Right on schedule! They weren't there a mere 12 hours ago. How cool is that?

The other babies are doing well too. I gave the parents some millet again so we could see how the babies' poop is, but none of them pooped on me. Hopefully later! They're growing well though so I don't think they're doing too poorly regardless.

Next time I update, hopefully we'll have our fourth babe!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

The fourth baby is still working at hatching! He's made more progress and when I hold the egg up to my ear, I can hear him chirping AND pecking at the shell with his little beaky

Also, Kieran is mastering the baby cockatiel begging for food sound. This is what hungry baby cockatiels sound like:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alI2eoxefdY&feature=related[/ame]

It's pretty loud and can be really, really obnoxious. I've actually known of breeders who stopped raising cockatiels because they couldn't stand the sounds the babies make. They make it most of the time when they're awake, too! So far our babies have only been doing cute little chirps when they're hungry. I'm glad Kieran is starting to make the static sound because it means he's developmentally on target. Thankfully the sound doesn't really bug me, Little Bird made a variation of that sound for most of his 3 years on this planet and I got really good at tuning it out!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I'm getting a little anxious! 4th egg still hasn't hatched. I've been aware of it pipping for about 13 hours now. I don't know how long he was working to get out before then. You're supposed to give them 36 hours to get out by themselves, then try to help them hatch. Hopefully it doesn't come to that! I can hear him chirping in his egg and when I held a flashlight up to it, I could see him moving his head and beak around in the air cell I could see, feel and hear every chirp! I tried to capture it on video, but the video didn't turn out that great. You can see him in the egg but not see him moving.

 

[hartleybun]

:nerves1ray: hope that 4th chick is faring well! we cant really see much of our swallows - just beaks poking up demanding food! they have chosen the darkest, highest part of the shed for their nests. one has the babies in, the other smaller bowl is used by the father. lol! we are watching thru binoculars as we are only going within 6ft of them. anything nearer and the parents start flying around in circles flapping.!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Okay, it's been 8 hours since I last checked the nest box right before I went to bed. I hope the egg hatched! Arthur needs to get his feathery little keester out of the nest box so I can check without him trampling his children in his desire to pierce my fingertips.

Thanks for the good thoughts, Donna! I dreamed about a baby bird hatching. I wonder why... Paul dreamed that we broke into a lady's house where she was keeping lots of bunnies in tiny (like 8 inch by 8 inch) cages and neglecting them and we stole all her bunnies.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I swear my hair is going to be white by the time these chicks grow up. The egg still hasn't hatched, but the chick is chirping. I'm considering trying to help him out... I wish I had experience in helping chicks! You're supposed to assist if it's been 24 hours and the chick hasn't pipped 1/4 of the shell. It's been 27 hours since I first noticed pip marks (so he started some time before then, probably hours before) and he's gone around about 1/4-1/3 of the way. The first thing to do is break the shell over the air cell so I can see in and tell if he's drawn in his yolk sack and if he's drawn in the blood from the vessels. I have this article to go off of: http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/assist-hatches.html

I have a heating pad and a cup but not anything with humidity (a cup of water also on the pad and then cover them with an upside down container maybe?) or a thermometer to check air temp. We could go buy a thermometer. I'm worried I'll mess it up and he'll die if I try to help! You aren't supposed to put the egg back in the nest if you've broken part of the shell (you put the baby back once he's hatched, of course). I don't know if he's really stuck or just taking his sweet time.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

You can see the little eggling moving here:



You can hear him chirping too. The black thing is his eye ball.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

WE HAVE BABY! PHEW! I heard random chirps (the babies only chirp now if they're being fed), went to investigate, and found an empty shell and a wet, wiggly baby. Mama and papa are taking care of him I got a video of the family really quickly. Arthur was in the nest box (sometimes he doesn't leave for hours and I wanted to check on the egg), so you can see how protective he is. Yay for 4 babies! And yay that I didn't have to help him hatch!

Video uploading now!