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I need help with my 22 day old cockatiel. The parents rejected her when she came out of the shell. I took over as mother and have been tending to her every need. I have done everything by the book and my own knowledge of birds. She is at the stage where I am to feed her only 3 times a day, the rest of the time she is supposed to feed herself from the bowls of food, water, millet, and so on, but she will not eat for herself. I am afraid that she will die on me like her brother whom I buried yesterday. She is a beautiful bird with white feathers and a yellow head, and pink eyes which are beautiful. Is there anyone out there that can give me some advice on getting her to feed on her own. Right now I am putting the formula and some baby seeds on my tongue and she is fine with that. This cannot go on forever if she is to live. One more thing, her mother bit her on both sides of her beak. I managed to get the bleeding to stop but her crys were killing me. She healed from this, but now her beak is not straight. The top of her beak is off to one side while her bottom beak is off to the other side. She has no problem eating from a syringe, but now it is time for her to start eating on her own. Someone please help me. From a brokenhearted owner.

hey. 3 weeks is still very young. It sounds like you doing a great job. Keep doing what you're doing and she will be fine. I would seriousley contact a vet so they can check out the beak. Remeber you're it's mummy. Just like any other form of young life nothing is on strict timeline and she is probley a little slow to pick up how to feed heerself.

Theo

#1 She is too young to eat on her own with a problem with her beak. Continue to feed her as much as she needs!
#2 She needs to see a vet ASAP to see if her beak can be corrected.
#3

Right now I am putting the formula and some baby seeds on my tongue and she is fine with that.

Human saliva is deadly to birds. Do not feed her from your mouth. She will need to see a vet to make sure she has not picked up a bacterial infection.

Continue to keep food and water in with her. She will slowly start to explore it, but she is too young still to eat on her own. Give her cheerios and other healthy foods to explore as well, but please, see an avian vet with her as soon as you can.

#1 She is too young to eat on her own with a problem with her beak. Continue to feed her as much as she needs!
#2 She needs to see a vet ASAP to see if her beak can be corrected.
#3

Right now I am putting the formula and some baby seeds on my tongue and she is fine with that.

Human saliva is deadly to birds. Do not feed her from your mouth. She will need to see a vet to make sure she has not picked up a bacterial infection.

Continue to keep food and water in with her. She will slowly start to explore it, but she is too young still to eat on her own. Give her cheerios and other healthy foods to explore as well, but please, see an avian vet with her as soon as you can.

Here are some websites that can help you out.

http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/handfeeding.html

This site has some guidelines on when to feed, but I agree with feeding your baby whenever he/she is hungry.

http://www.acstiels.com/Articles/Breeding/handfeed.html

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww63e.htm

I also want to remind you that books are just guides. not the rule.
good luck and keep us all informed of her progress.

theo

Mods:
Please delete my first post in this thread (Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: Help me please!), I accidentally hit quote instead of edit and cannot fix my mistake. This one can be deleted after too.

Thanks!

Sorry you lost one of your babies. I know how nervous that can make you with the remaining little one. Think you still have a long ways to go. My parent bred babies often beg for food for months. You are being a good parront, just be patient. Think I would run her by a vet, just to put my own mind and ease. Hang in there!

Please keep feeding that baby whenever she's hungry. The tiels I used to raise weaned between 6-8 weeks. They were given some pieces of food at 4-5 weeks to play with and maybe nibble and like, but the good stuff in the syringe was always there for them. Please don't let your very young baby go hungry.

Paca

Thanks everyone for the replies. I do plan to take her to the vet if she does not get any better. Someone said that she might be fledging, and that they will not eat while fledging. Thank you for the advice. I will keep you all posted. Lorraine

Is she fully feathered yet? At 3 weeks, she'd be much too young for fledging.

If her beak is not straight, she may not be able to eat food!!! Vet ASAP!!!!! 22 days is too young to wean or fledge.

I can't stress enough about taking her to the vet for the beak problem. It may only get worse. As the rest have said too, the birdy is way too young to start eating by herself, or fledge.

Keep us posted ..

Sam