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Hello all, Im new here today and hoping that all you experts out there can help me. We are taking care of 3 baby tiels for a friend. (His momma bird flew away last sunday and he is about 70 years old and just couldnt handle hand feeding) The babys will be three weeks old on this coming tuesday. Here is my problem, 1 of the babys has slow/sour crop. (The other 2 are doing just fine. They poop alot and completely empty their crop.) Thursday morning sick babys crop was still full from previous evening (I think we may have overfed him and not kept him warm enough) I have been reading on line all that I can so here is what we have done so far. Limiting the intake of food to the other babys to only 5mil at a time and only feeding them when the crops have gone down significantly. Food is at 105 degrees. Keeping their temp about 80-85 degrees. Friday night I gave the sick baby warm water and massaged his crop (it was firm). Whith my help he spit up alot of what was in his crop and it smelled very sour and even had seeds in it (not given by us, but left over from the mother im sure) We give him a solution of 5mills vinager to 500mills water and feed him 1 mils of vinager water, we have also tried gatorade and karo syrup diluted 8drops to 1ltr. We have alternated these methods to keep him hydrated about every 30-40 minutes feeding him only 1 mil at a time. We have given him small amounts of food 1mil of baby applesauce/ExactBird food equal parts mixed very runny a couple times a day. His crop is still big, but his poops are very runny/bright green(better then none at all right? i dont think he pooped at all on thursday or friday) Worried that his crop is still so big it has gone down some but very very slowly and afraid to feed him more for fear it will get stuck again. Any suggestions - vet is not an option due to $$ but dont want to loose this poor little bird. Thanks for any help you can give me.

I hate to say it, but a vet will be your best bet. Chicks with slow or sour crop have developed an infection and need antibiotics to treat it. I understand money is a problem, but work out a payment plan with the vet. The poop color worries me. Bright green is usually a sign of an infection. When one sets in, birds, even adult ones need to see a vet.

Over the counter antibiotics will not help, so don't bother trying. I would keep their temp a little warmer and hope for the best. Use different syringes for each bird and disinfect them after use. This will keep the infection from spreading to the other two.

I hate to say it too but if the poop is runny green then you are dealing with a bacterial infection. please take this little guy to the vet asap...
from my experience the apple cider vinegar works well in the beginning for sour crop but now it is a full blown bacterial infection

Thank you. I will see what we can work out.

How is the baby doing? Did you find a vet, Stew?

Yes, we took him to the vet on Tuesday morning. The vet flushed his crop and kept him under obvservation for a few hours. He gave us Enroflaxacin 10mg and told us that the outcome looked bleak. We took him home and by the next day he was so weak and sick we just prayed for him to go. Prayers were answered and he went peacefuly. Our family was heartbroken! The other 2 are doing just fine. The are happy and healthy. Thanks for your help and concern. What a great website this is!

Oh no..I am so sorry

On another note,
make sure your baby formula is smooth without lumps heated evenly (no microwave!) 105 F( using a good candy thermometer) perhap a drop of apple cider vinegar in formula for a week to prevent crop issues.....

How sad

How are the babies doing?