Cockatiel Egg and Chick Thread

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The little ones are doing poorly :( It's been 24 1/2 hours since I removed them from the nest box and their crops are STILL not empty! The younger one's crop is almost empty, but the older one's is still half full. That's really bad- worse than Kieran, Teddy and Neeja. And it doesn't help that these two chicks are the same ages and look the same as Teddy and Neeja. They're both heavier thank goodness (since they got sick later), but ugh.

I have some hope for the younger chick, but not for the older one. Poor little guys.
 
Luvthempigs, I'm hoping they will somehow be okay! I'm determined to stick with them as long as it seems hopeful. This time around I have MUCH less going on in my life. School starts up again in 2 weeks, but 2 weeks is a long time for these guys so by then they should either be dead (I hope not...) or getting better.

We named the younger chick Isidore. If he turns out to be a girl, we'll change it to Isadora. His nickname is Izzy :) I'm working on a name for the older chick. I was tempted to use Theodore, but Teddy was theoretically short for Theodore (though I never called him that) and I'm afraid to curse him or something by calling him that.
 
So we named the older chick. His name is Nico! I think it's so cute and seems to fit him :D I had already been thinking of Nico and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding tonight- Toula's brother is named Nico in the movie, along with half of her cousins. A good Greek name to go with the Greek Phoenix and Isidore!

I fed Nico and Izzy an hour ago. It took Nico's crop 37 hours to empty. 37! Wow! Poor guy. It took Izzy 10 1/2 hours to empty 3 CCs, normally it should take about 2 hours. The good thing at least is that both babies figured out how to eat from the syringe VERY quickly, unlike some baby birds I know (*cough cough Phoenix*). Tomorrow/later today (it's not tomorrow until I've gone to bed!) I want to get the babies started on an antifungal medication. Hopefully they will get better with the help of the medicine...
 
Remember my Teako? LOL @ them eating quickly vs Phoenix. Heh, I really hope they will be ok. 37 hours is a really long time :expressionless
 
What about Teako, Nela?

Well, I'm falling for Izzy. He's just so cute and sweet. His temperament seems very sweet. He doesn't hiss at me or anything anymore. I just want to cuddle him. He's easy to tell apart from Nico because he has a single yellow feather growing at the back of his crest!

I started Izzy on medication this morning right before he was fed again. Hopefully it will help- it's an antifungal so it should help prevent yeast (which is the #1 killer of baby cockatiels, it is what killed his siblings in the end) from growing in his crop. So if we can keep yeast from growing and his digestion to speed up, we'll be good. That's a tall order though, especially considering it took him 9 1/2 hours to empty 3 CCs of formula- it should only take about 2 hours!

Poor Nico was fed 3 CCs at the same time as Izzy but still has about half of it in his crop almost 10 hours later. Poor little one. I'll do what I can for him, but I'm not too hopeful. I haven't given him medicine yet because it's best to do when their crops are empty, but I have the feeling I'll be giving him some in a few minutes anyway because better for him to have a partly effective dose of medicine than NO dose of medicine.

Phoenix is doing well. He had a very baby day yesterday. I think he is jealous of his little brothers because he was whining and fussing all day long and even willingly ate 5 CCs of formula, which he hasn't (willingly!) done in over 3 weeks. He's perfectly capable of eating and drinking on his own and hadn't been hand fed in 3 days, but he needed some reassurance I think. He's been spending lots of time with Paul, which I think is so cute. Paul always said before now that he didn't like Phoenix, but now he says he DOES like Phoenix because who wouldn't like a cute little bird that loves to sit on your shoulder and tickle you with his feathers?
 
I have a kind of good update! Izzy digested 3 CCs of formula in 5 1/2 hours. That's a huge improvement for him. I just fed him again and am hoping he'll digest it just as fast or even faster. It should only take him about 2 1/2 hours to digest that much food, but 5 1/2 hours is much better than the 10 1/2 it was taking him. Poor Nico is still digesting very, verrrrrry slowly though.
 
Thanks, Jan! Raising baby birds has been such a bumpy road. I think Arthur or Poppet MUST have some sort of low grade infection that they've passed onto their babies. I took down the nest box yesterday (I'd left it up in the off chance I decided to stick the babies back in) and when things with the babies has calmed down, we're going to take Arthur and Poppet to the vet to get checked out. Call me crazy, but I almost want to let them have babies again next year. They like being parents and this is totally selfish, but I would like to experience the happiness of raising healthy babies rather than the fear and worry of nursing sick ones.

Little Nico is doing poorly. He's digesting so slowly- only about 3 CCs per day. Izzy is doing better... It's weird, yesterday it took him 5 1/2 hours for 3 CCs, then 11 hours, then 8 hours. It's so weird. Both chicks are just dropping weight horribly. I'm hopeful that Izzy will somehow survive. Of course I want Nico to survive too, but I don't think he will. Poor babies.

I wonder if it actually is possible for Phoenix to be jealous of the little babies. He's been SO whiny and needy the past couple days! I handfed him again this afternoon. I felt like a mother with multiple small children- I was feeding Nico and Izzy who were both crying, and Phoenix was on my shoulder crying too! Everyone needs me! Thankfully I'm not feeling overwhelmed or anything. Just wishing the babies would get better. I'd do anything for them to be healthy, normal chicks who would grow up and be my little birdies.
 
Poor Nico is the same as yesterday. I'm amazed by his will to live and how strong he is for a little baby bird. It seems like my babies get sick easily (though I think one of the parents must have a low grade infection they passed on, like I said before), but they're all are/were such fighters.

At 4 am this morning, Izzy breathed in some of his medicine. He coughed for a while and now I'm worried he'll get aspiration pneumonia. Is it ironic to die from your medicine?

Other than the choking, I hesitate to say, but... I think he's improving a little! Unless there's something wrong with my scale, it appears that he's gained 4-5 grams over the past couple of days. Also his poop is looking healthier. Hopefully he will continue to show signs of improvement! I'm sure I'll torture myself by weighing him between every feeding today to look for more gains. It doesn't really help to weigh a baby bird more than once a day (their weight kind of fluctuates throughout the day even with an empty crop, you're supposed to weigh them once a day at the same time) but I'll do it anyway. I really hope he doesn't get aspiration pneumonia now.
 
I'm sad to say that Baby Nico is weakening. This afternoon his eyes are dull and he's less energetic and crying quieter. I don't think he'll be here much longer. I'm going to get some pictures of him tonight. He's such a cute baby. I'm sorry I couldn't save him. I'm sure the best choice would have been to boil his egg back when he was first laid instead of letting him hatch and suffer like this, but how was I to know? :(
 
I'm still hopeful Izzy could make it. For some reason if he survives, Nico's suffering will be a little more justified to me because I would have either "killed" both eggs or neither of them. Does that make sense?

Nico is a bit more energetic this evening. I got a video of them yesterday and should upload it! It shows them very worked up over food.
 
Don't know what to say apart from how sorry to hear your news
does your breeder friend say anything about the parent birds or why this could be happening. I'm not a breeder but could it be something the parents are eating that causes it
Hoping things work out for you
 
Here are some pictures of the babies.

Izzy:

IMG_4520.jpg


Nico (love his crazy hairdo):

IMG_4543.jpg


IMG_4546.jpg


together (they're very wiggly!):
IMG_4550.jpg


Phoenix:

IMG_4530.jpg


IMG_4526.jpg
 
My baby Nico is fading away. He's losing strength and his cry is quieter. It's breaking my heart. I just fed him and Izzy and Nico got lots of kisses. You aren't really supposed to kiss baby birds but I think he's going to pass away today so it doesn't matter, I'll kiss him if I feel like it. He doesn't deserve to die, he's just an innocent little baby. I get the feeling he would have grown up to be a really sweet bird.

I haven't gone to sleep yet because I was waiting for their crops to empty so I could feed them right when they emptied. I was debating staying awake so I could be with Nico, but I think it would be selfish for me to hold him a lot right now. He's most comfortable in the dark, warm brooder with Izzy, not in my hands. He associates me with food, and lack of food is what's killing him, so he'll just work himself into a frenzy if I hold him and I'd rather him be peaceful. If he's still hanging on when I wake up, I will allow myself to cuddle him for a couple of minutes. I've never really cuddled Nico or Izzy before because I want them to be warm in the brooder when they aren't being fed.
 
*hugs*
 
Thanks, Alicia!

I put the babies in a bucket while I prepare their formula and food. They stretch very tall when they're hungry so I needed something with high sides and the bucket works well! Izzy is quite good at perching on my finger so I set him on the edge of the bucket :) Soon he'll be big and strong enough to pull himself up to the edge of the bucket! Or at least, I hope he will be...

IMG_4567JPGresized.jpg

 
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