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- 8/5/14
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tl;dr: I have an 11-day-old cockatiel chick who has been handfed from day 1. Growth has been very slow. He's currently just shy of 15 grams. Eyes have opened and he's got the start of feathers on his wings and head. I contacted an avian vet, who said he didn't need to come in and would catch up, and said his poor growth was because of his hard start (info below). I am curious if there is anything I can do to improve his growth or alleviate complications from stunting, as there is little info I can find.
For background: have never raised parrots before, have a little experience with finches. Had been attempting to prevent two of my cockatiels from breeding for four months. I thought I was clear because sexytimes and broodiness had stopped, and then my hen surprised me with 4 eggs. I was going to boil the eggs, but I (foolishly) caved to my family's desire to see the eggs hatch, and the male's adorable habit of singing to his eggs when he was sitting on them.
Parents smashed one egg, one egg died very early in incubation (suspected chilling--they started sitting as soon as the first egg was laid, but didn't sit reliably at first), the third egg hatched, and the fourth died at around 15-16 days of incubation. I opened the fourth egg, and the chick was perfectly formed, in hatching position, with long down, but was extremely small--it took up only half the egg. I am not sure what the cause of death was. There was no obvious deformity aside from the tiny size and no smell or sign of infection.
Third egg had a hard time hatching. I candled and saw the internal pip, but 48 hours later there was still no external pip. There were ever-expanding hairline cracks centered on where the pip ought to have been, so at 48 hours I made a small hole in the egg. Veins were completely absorbed aside from 1 small vein, and the yolk was nearly completely absorbed. Once yolk was entirely absorbed, I helped the chick out of the egg, let him dry and warm up under the heat lamp, and tried to re-introduce him to its parents. Parents were freaked out by the baby, but mostly stayed on their nest so I left them for a bit. Came back to check on them, and the chick was a few inches from the eggs and cool. Warmed chick up and put him back in next to the eggs. Left the parents for awhile. Came back again, and the chick was even further from the eggs, chilled, buried under the wood chips, and had a few scratches. He had a nip on the back of his head that bled enough to scab over, but I don't think he lost much blood. He also had scratches under his eye and one behind his wing that did not bleed but were inflamed. So I pulled him.
I have not hand-fed before, but aside from early problems with a mislabeled syringe it's gone well. Because I was trying to get his parents to take him back, he didn't get food for close to 24 hours after hatching. I got a syringe for feeding medicine to babies from the drug store that was labeled cc's, but was not the same measurement as the handfeeding syringe I got from the pet store. Each cc on the drug store syringe was about 1/3 of each cc in the pet store syringe. So for the first two days, he was underfed. I don't have his weight for the first few days either--I had two kitchen gram scales that I thought would work for weighing the chick, but they had trouble registering so low a weight and didn't read the same. He's been slowly gaining weight since day 5--about 1 gram/day--and has recently started accelerating--gaining 2.5 grams/day.
It took a while for his crop to get going. He digested pretty slowly the first few days, but that's corrected itself. Currently he's eating 1.4 cc's of formula reliably every 3-3.5 hours. He's very active and vocal and has a very strong feeding response. His mother is relatively small--about 90 grams--but his father is more typically sized.
Any advice would be very appreciated! I've contacted several vets and local people for advice but have been brushed off or not told much every time.
Pictures are from an hour ago. He's not red in real life, that's just my camera.
For background: have never raised parrots before, have a little experience with finches. Had been attempting to prevent two of my cockatiels from breeding for four months. I thought I was clear because sexytimes and broodiness had stopped, and then my hen surprised me with 4 eggs. I was going to boil the eggs, but I (foolishly) caved to my family's desire to see the eggs hatch, and the male's adorable habit of singing to his eggs when he was sitting on them.
Parents smashed one egg, one egg died very early in incubation (suspected chilling--they started sitting as soon as the first egg was laid, but didn't sit reliably at first), the third egg hatched, and the fourth died at around 15-16 days of incubation. I opened the fourth egg, and the chick was perfectly formed, in hatching position, with long down, but was extremely small--it took up only half the egg. I am not sure what the cause of death was. There was no obvious deformity aside from the tiny size and no smell or sign of infection.
Third egg had a hard time hatching. I candled and saw the internal pip, but 48 hours later there was still no external pip. There were ever-expanding hairline cracks centered on where the pip ought to have been, so at 48 hours I made a small hole in the egg. Veins were completely absorbed aside from 1 small vein, and the yolk was nearly completely absorbed. Once yolk was entirely absorbed, I helped the chick out of the egg, let him dry and warm up under the heat lamp, and tried to re-introduce him to its parents. Parents were freaked out by the baby, but mostly stayed on their nest so I left them for a bit. Came back to check on them, and the chick was a few inches from the eggs and cool. Warmed chick up and put him back in next to the eggs. Left the parents for awhile. Came back again, and the chick was even further from the eggs, chilled, buried under the wood chips, and had a few scratches. He had a nip on the back of his head that bled enough to scab over, but I don't think he lost much blood. He also had scratches under his eye and one behind his wing that did not bleed but were inflamed. So I pulled him.
I have not hand-fed before, but aside from early problems with a mislabeled syringe it's gone well. Because I was trying to get his parents to take him back, he didn't get food for close to 24 hours after hatching. I got a syringe for feeding medicine to babies from the drug store that was labeled cc's, but was not the same measurement as the handfeeding syringe I got from the pet store. Each cc on the drug store syringe was about 1/3 of each cc in the pet store syringe. So for the first two days, he was underfed. I don't have his weight for the first few days either--I had two kitchen gram scales that I thought would work for weighing the chick, but they had trouble registering so low a weight and didn't read the same. He's been slowly gaining weight since day 5--about 1 gram/day--and has recently started accelerating--gaining 2.5 grams/day.
It took a while for his crop to get going. He digested pretty slowly the first few days, but that's corrected itself. Currently he's eating 1.4 cc's of formula reliably every 3-3.5 hours. He's very active and vocal and has a very strong feeding response. His mother is relatively small--about 90 grams--but his father is more typically sized.
Any advice would be very appreciated! I've contacted several vets and local people for advice but have been brushed off or not told much every time.
Pictures are from an hour ago. He's not red in real life, that's just my camera.
