SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!

[BigSkyMT]

OMG! Those geese in the second picture are so beautiful! You have such a beautiful flock! I have two Indian runners, one of them, Myn, loves to sit on my shoulder too.

Congratulations on bringing Hercules home!(I probably Said it before, but just to be sure, I love his name!) How is he doing today?

Awww thank you! We have 4 Indian runners in our flock & 1 pekin. We had 2 but a hawk attacked her & we lost her. Ever since we moved there run 15 ft from our house the hawks & coyotes have backed off! Our 2 african geese are super lovey. Norma has a crush on my husband & will stand right infront of him & honk until he gives her lovins. I go out & sit with them everyday. Not to mention packing gallons&gallons of water out 5 times a day. in the winter. Summer time is easy with the hose! This summer we are building them a large pond once we finish building our house. Will Def post pics of that project!

Hercules seems to be doing good. I told him good morning & uncovered his cage on one side & have him fresh food & water. He's still very quiet & just taking it all in. Would today be a good day to sit by him & read to him? I cannot wait to see his personality come out. And if he is a girl, I'm going to need a new name!

 

[MommyBird]

And if he is a girl, I'm going to need a new name!

Hercules would be a bit strange..........I will suggest Xena (as in the warrior princess)

 

[TikiMyn]

Awww thank you! We have 4 Indian runners in our flock & 1 pekin. We had 2 but a hawk attacked her & we lost her. Ever since we moved there run 15 ft from our house the hawks & coyotes have backed off! Our 2 african geese are super lovey. Norma has a crush on my husband & will stand right infront of him & honk until he gives her lovins. I go out & sit with them everyday. Not to mention packing gallons&gallons of water out 5 times a day. in the winter. Summer time is easy with the hose! This summer we are building them a large pond once we finish building our house. Will Def post pics of that project!

Hercules seems to be doing good. I told him good morning & uncovered his cage on one side & have him fresh food & water. He's still very quiet & just taking it all in. Would today be a good day to sit by him & read to him? I cannot wait to see his personality come out. And if he is a girl, I'm going to need a new name!

That is wonderful! Never in my life would I have thought ducks and geese could be so loving! If I don’t spend enough time with my Pippin girlie, she calls to me untill I come to play with her! Currently Myn is a little more stand offish, but we still do our ‘duck talk’ every day, he is a male and I absolutly love the noises the males make! Can’t wait to see your pool project

You could totally read to Hercules today! Just sit at a distance where he is comfortable and read him a Nice story

Hercules would be a bit strange..........I will suggest Xena (as in the warrior princess)

Love that idea! That would be perfect!

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I think today would be a great day to sit near his cage and read to him!

 

[BigSkyMT]

Just in a few hours of reading and singing to him, he is now comfortable with me sitting about a foot away next to him.
I read someone's post to play rain sound & try the spray bottle because his tail is covered in poop & his wing feathers are dirty and matted. So I tried it. One half spray every like 3 seconds. He actually came over to my side of the cage & spread his wings & bent over. So beautiful. He made a few chirps & was loving it. I only sprayed my half, so he had the option to walk away from the mist as well, but he was loving it! After about 2 min he walked to the other side of the cage, so I stopped. Figured he had enough. He then left his perch & flew to the bottom! (Most excitement I've seen since brining him home) he was trying to splash in a little puddle that accumulated on the newspaper. So I slowly stood up & walked to the kitchen & got him a shallow plastic container & put it at the bottom of his cage. He checked it out for a min but didn't want to dive in lol. I just sat back down & watched him. He then decided to crawl up the cage, back to his perch. He nibbled on a few water drops hanging from the perch. So cuuute!!
But, now he's just sitting on his perch wet & shivering? I turned up the heat before I tried the mist & now just turned it up more for him. My dog is panting, I'm sweating & Hercules is shivering.. not like he was, just a little bit, but he's not preening his feathers? I don't know about cockatiels, but my ducks & geese go on a full out preen after getting thier feathers wet. They attend to thier feasts asap. Is Hercules okay? House temp right now is 75 and he is just sitting on his perch wet, trying to keep his eyes open. Should I have not given him a spray bath? He was so dirty and matted at the end of his tail & wing feathers. Is he going to be okay & what can I do to help him out?

Here's a pic of him enjoying the water. Tried my best to get a good one without him noticing my phone. Not the best quality pic, but I hope you can see him bent down with his wings open, loving the water. Took the pic one sec to soon. Right after I took the pic his wings were full on spread out.

 

[TikiMyn]

That is precious, so much progress! You and Hercules are doing very well! It is okay that he is not preening, usually they my fids will dry a bit and then start preening. They always seem to be shivering a little, don’t worry!

 

[BigSkyMT]

That is precious, so much progress! You and Hercules are doing very well! It is okay that he is not preening, usually they my fids will dry a bit and then start preening. They always seem to be shivering a little, don’t worry!

Okay, that is such a relief! Was so worried my stomach hurt. I gave him some space & we will just see what happens. Hope he get the rest of the poo off his feathers. He was pretty dirty bird. It was so amazing watching him enjoy the water. I think I enjoyed it more than him

 

[BigSkyMT]

He's been preening since our last message. Almost an hour! Yay! His wings look as though the breeder hacked his wings back. His wing feathers are really short. Poor fella.

 

[MommyBird]

some of my birds love a blow-dry.
blow it on yourself sometimes so he sees it is OK
use low heat and low speed and never blow on their face. keep it moving and take many breaks.
With a cockatiel it is harder to avoid the face with the air but when I blow on my face it can be hard to breathe so just short bursts for Hercules.

 

[SquawksNibbles]

That is great progress! And I'm glad he enjoyed the spray bath; so cute!

His wing feathers are really short. Poor fella.

If/when you let his wing feathers grow out (we really recommend it), he may not know how to fly at first, or at least may not be very good at it. I used to clip my birds' wing feathers but stopped when I realized how bad it was for them. When they first started out flying, I was very scared! One of my birds, Skittles, was having real trouble getting used to it. And whenever both of them tried flying in the cage, they would smack in to toys and such. However, now they are great flyers! They can now easily maneuver between toys and perches and make a nice landing on their perches. And I enjoy seeing them fly around and have fun, and I know you would, too!

Just out of curiosity, what type of cage do you have him in? Is it like a Prevue Flight Cage or something different?

 

[Tiel Feathers]

When my tiels were young they didn’t preen much after a bath. It was almost like once they got wet they didn’t know what to do lol! They quiver when they are wet because it helps dry their feathers. He’s probably just fine as far as temperature goes. I wouldn’t use a hair dryer unless you know it is free of Teflon. Hair dryers can also rob their skin and feathers of the much needed moisture. I let all of my birds dry naturally, or in a sunny spot by the window. It’s great that he liked the misting and that enjoyed your reading to him!

 

[BigSkyMT]

He's mostly dry and got most of the poop off. I think maybe his tail feathers are just stained lol.

About the clipping. I def do plan on letting all his feathers grow back. I would like to harness train him & take him out in the garden with me this spring & in the yard, walks through the park ect. I have a lot of other training to do before that is ever an option. But I will get there. My clicker & training perch came in today! I'm very excited about it. I've been putting off vacuuming the hardwood today & steam mop.

How do your birds do with the vac & a steam mop that kind of hisses?
Should I do it today or put the floor chores off another day? I'm OCD about clean floors lol

 

[Monica]

You got to watch the "cockatiel rain dance"!

You have a lovely flock!



Two of my birds don't seem to care for the vacuum, while Casey, my tiel, will try and bathe while it's running! She tries to fit her entire body into the water dish!

Maybe next time you should have a little container of water and mist at the same time? That way, Hercules can choose!

 

[Tiel Feathers]

None of my tiels mind the vacuum at all. Maybe start it in a room far away from him and see how he is.

 

[BigSkyMT]

I couldn't handle it, I vacuumed & steam mopped he didn't seem to mind at all. Just kept eating his millet & preening. I didn't vac right next to his cage tho. I swept that area. Is did steam mop it tho & he was curious but not upset so it was good. Guess he needs to get used to it. I usually do my floors every other day.

I still haven't seen him use his water dish & food dish. He's eaten almost his whole stock of millet from yesterday. When his millet runs out, should I wait to give him another stock so he might discover his food dish? Or should I replace the millet so atleast I know he's eating something. & the breeder said he needed to gain a little weight. He is a lot smaller than his clutch mates were. Thanks for all your guys help. Also like your right here with me, walking me through the motions. Can't thank you all enough!

 

[BigSkyMT]

So weird.. seems like once I post, things happen. Hercules was just in his food dish chowing down & now is exploring the cage a little & differnt perches. Awesome he's starting to adjust! The breeder sent me home with a huge bag of seed. How long until I can start to transition him to pellets?

 

[Monica]

You can start to transition now, just keep in mind that he should be eating about 50/50 seeds to pellets, along with fresh foods.

 

[BigSkyMT]

Okay. I will start adding a little pellets to his seeds in thr morning. Thanks for replying

 

[BigSkyMT]

Good morning my feather loving friends!

Day 3 of Hercules being home. I sat & had my banana & yogurt next to his cage this morning while he at his breakfast. He wasn't as spooked with me removing the cage cover. I think he liked the sunshine on his wings.

Here's a pic of him chowing down. Hasn't touched the pellets but I put a few in his seed mix. Can you see in the photo how chopped his poor little wings are? He tried flying up to a perch about 6 inches away & ended up landing on the bottom. How long until his poor little wings will grow back & should I try feeding him millet through the cage bars today? Also read putting your hand in the cage for 10-15 min at a time is good to get comfortable with your hand.

Have any of you tried these techniques?

 

[Monica]

Picture didn't show.

He'll go through his first molt any time between 4-12 months of age... so you're looking at about 2-10 months out before he might have any ability to fly.. possibly longer.

Yes to feeding millet through cage bars.

No to putting your hand in cage for 10-15 minutes a time. Well, if he's scared and unsure, then no. If he's curious, then yes. However, it's better to do so only when the bird doesn't freak out and try to escape. If he will take millet through the cage bars, then you can certainly try feeding millet *in* the cage with your hand in there. More interesting and less scary when treats are involved!

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