We've got baby Cockatiels and I'm freaking out.

[kerrielou]

First, let me preface by saying these are not my birds, nor would I have ever in my wildest imagination bought a pair of birds. I've had a few single parakeets which were delightful, but certainly never a pair, because they bond with each other and not "their" human. My roommate has a breeding pair of Cockatiels she purchased about 9 years ago (because her boyfriend at the time said a single bird would be "lonely") and have been living in my home for about 5. They don't act a lot like pets obviously, because they are far more into each other than they are into us, but they are somewhat finger trained and fun to watch. Heretofore they have not laid a viable clutch. In fact, they have generally only laid one or two eggs about every other year. In the past my roommate has been concerned about egg binding and taken eggs away and the year before she came to my house she laid several in a row. Well, this time I read up and knew not to do that, because they just keep laying. She is out of town 4.5 days a week caring for her grand-kids so I have become the de-facto caretakers of 4 eggs, which are now 2 eggs and 2 chicks and I am totally freaking out.

Our home is very very small and 50% of the time it's also filled with 4 kids ages 9 to 14. It's become fairly difficult to try to accommodate our little bird parents in such a small space, but I'm doing my best. When the female laid the first one and the male started his usual insanity of sitting on it, rolling it around to various locations, and not letting her near it, I figured it was just another flop which was totally fine with us. When she laid a second and he started his usual insanity chasing her around and possessively sitting I absolutely stooped to his level and put the eggs in a "nest-box" which was really just a way too small glass dish with paper towels. To my dismay they began behaving as the breeding sites described, not sitting and her laying another every 2 days. As soon as they had 4 eggs they started sitting and took turns with zero of the usual drama by the male.

Well, a couple days ago a chick hatched and today another hatched. At that point I knew they needed a better conceived nest-box much larger than the glass dish I had put them in. So I fashioned a wood box with pine shavings about 9" x "9 and transferred the two eggs and 2 chicks into it. They were pretty upset and refused to get anywhere near it. These birds are also seed addicts and will eat nothing else. Last night I picked up pellets, supplement powder, and hit the grocery for the foods the breeding sites recommended. While they have been eating the pellets to my dismay and delight, they have still been screaming for seed. So I did put some millet in the nest box to try to coax them in there. After 30 nail biting minutes of me hiding in the hallway peeking around the corner they did finally get in the box and start caring for their chicks and eggs. I've never described myself as an animal lover, but omg was I relieved. I had no intention of hand feeding newborn chicks or figuring out how to keep them warm, but apparently I've already grown more attached than I thought.

So now, here we are with a pair of adults and their first clutch that have actually hatched and I feel completely out of my depth. For now, I really don't want to intervene in any way, other than providing a healthy diet and plenty of water for the parents. I feel the parents are the best qualified to feed for these tiny chirping fluffy balls. My question is, do you separate them at some point before trying to sell or adopt them out or do you just keep them with the parents the whole way through? Since the parents are not really tame, I'm concerned the male especially, will not want us going near his chicks and I'd like them to be very friendly, hand fed, and finger trained before finding suitable human homes for them. These birds were bought in a pet store and likely had very little human contact. I want to avoid that as I have had a couple of small birds in the past myself that just never tamed even with they were just a single bird. I'd like to be able to either sell or adopt away friendly little bundles to good homes.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

Welcome!

This website should be able to help out a little if you haven't already seen it.
Just Cockatiels! - HOME

 

[camelotshadow]

Hope you get some good advice. I'm just not sure now is the time to switch them to pellets. They should have some seed & ideally some pellets along with perhaps some soft food. I'm also not sure wood shavings are good as the chicks could ingest that so hope you get some advice on that.
I don't think you should really disturb them especially while they are so young as the parents could decide they don't want to take care of them & you don't sound like you have the time or experience or equipment to do that.


I wish you the best with your new family.

 

[kerrielou]

Hope you get some good advice. I'm just not sure now is the time to switch them to pellets. They should have some seed & ideally some pellets along with perhaps some soft food. I'm also not sure wood shavings are good as the chicks could ingest that so hope you get some advice on that.

I've read some different things on nesting materials and had trouble finding a good consensus. What would you suggest?

 

[Kolkri]

I believe is abundant weaning. They well know when it is time to eat on their own. Also since you don't know how I would not try to hand fed but maybe try to hold them and get them use to people while they are still being fed by their parents. Good luck. Next time you can just take the eggs away or you well have a house full of tiels. lol
Carefresh or shredded paper well work just fine for bedding.

 

[camelotshadow]

I'm afraid I'm not qualified to really recommend but I have read that wood shavings have the potential to be dangerous as chicks can eat them. I suppose they will be just eating what the parents put in there mouth now as they are not big enough yet to eat the wood shavings so you have some time to figure it out.

 

[melissasparrots]

First thing, don't try to change too much right now shooting for some ideal that the pair isn't previously used to. You are very lucky they chose to go in the box and I hope they are still willing to spend the night in there and have a parent attending to the babies most of the time. Otherwise, don't suddenly force the pair to eat pellets if they weren't previously eating them. That is a good way to starve babies. I'd give the pair unlimited of anything they want. Offer pellets, but make sure they have access to seed and lots of it. You might also try cooked until soft rice, quinoa and beans. Small beans like split peas and lentils might be more desirable for cockatiels. Also, frozen and thawed peas and corn are usually a hit. None of those things are full of nutrition, but better than seed only and I've had many pairs hit the corn big time and raise healthy babies. Just remember, offer the parents some of everything. Think smorgasbord of food. Make sure it is all easy access and they don't have to dig through piles of less desirable food in order to get what they want. You can also try broccoli or bits of greens. Sometimes even seed junkies will make exceptions and surprise you when they have babies.
When I used to let cockatiels parent raise, I waited until the chicks weren't begging from the parents and were eating on their own most of the time. Then I moved them to another small cage for a week or so before selling just to make sure they would maintain themselves okay.

For now I would not interfere by trying to handle babies. Let these first time parents figure out what they are doing first. Maybe when the babies are about 10 days old, you can try holding them for just a couple minutes a day and put them back in. If the parents seem okay with that and go right back into the box and keep feeding, then you can slowly increase the amount of time you handle them. I used to do that with the cockatiel pair I had as a kid and the babies turned out so tame, you couldn't distinguish them from hand-raised. My male was nasty and semi-tame, their mom was very friendly. Just go slow and watch the parents to see what they are willing to tolerate. Wait until the parents are out of the box of their own volition before trying to hold the babies the first several times. Its best not to reach into the nest box when the parents are also in there.

 

[alicat]

I would definitely consider some precaution in the future especially considering tiels can lay year round. otherwise you're gonna have a little living room breeding situation going on!

I've never dealt with babies but best of luck, I'd do all the reading I could just in case something happens and you have to step in. good luck!

 

[kerrielou]

First thing, don't try to change too much right now shooting for some ideal that the pair isn't previously used to. You are very lucky they chose to go in the box and I hope they are still willing to spend the night in there and have a parent attending to the babies most of the time. Otherwise, don't suddenly force the pair to eat pellets if they weren't previously eating them. That is a good way to starve babies. I'd give the pair unlimited of anything they want. Offer pellets, but make sure they have access to seed and lots of it. You might also try cooked until soft rice, quinoa and beans. Small beans like split peas and lentils might be more desirable for cockatiels. Also, frozen and thawed peas and corn are usually a hit. None of those things are full of nutrition, but better than seed only and I've had many pairs hit the corn big time and raise healthy babies. Just remember, offer the parents some of everything. Think smorgasbord of food. Make sure it is all easy access and they don't have to dig through piles of less desirable food in order to get what they want. You can also try broccoli or bits of greens. Sometimes even seed junkies will make exceptions and surprise you when they have babies.
When I used to let cockatiels parent raise, I waited until the chicks weren't begging from the parents and were eating on their own most of the time. Then I moved them to another small cage for a week or so before selling just to make sure they would maintain themselves okay.

For now I would not interfere by trying to handle babies. Let these first time parents figure out what they are doing first. Maybe when the babies are about 10 days old, you can try holding them for just a couple minutes a day and put them back in. If the parents seem okay with that and go right back into the box and keep feeding, then you can slowly increase the amount of time you handle them. I used to do that with the cockatiel pair I had as a kid and the babies turned out so tame, you couldn't distinguish them from hand-raised. My male was nasty and semi-tame, their mom was very friendly. Just go slow and watch the parents to see what they are willing to tolerate. Wait until the parents are out of the box of their own volition before trying to hold the babies the first several times. Its best not to reach into the nest box when the parents are also in there.

Thank you so so so much for the advice! They were both on the floor this morning (we keep them clipped, but they are used to gliding down and running around) doing what looked like some foraging. I went ahead and laid out a seed bowl, which they have not touched, as well as a small plate with a tiny bit of kale, cooked pinto beans, and some moistened 21 grain bread. So far they are eating the pellets which I sprinkled with supplement and I am very happy to see them eating that over the seeds, even if they are not interested in the other foods. One of our main concerns whenever the female has laid has been diet. In the past we have been much more worried about her health than the possibility of any hatched eggs which seemed unlikely. I will certainly continue to offer a smorgasbord of food choices for them. They had millet last night to coax them into the nest box so I did not add more seeds, but did this morning which they've not gone for as of yet.

They are doing a great job parenting and we certainly do not plan on intervening until the babies are well developed. I had not touched eggs or babies until yesterday when transferring them from the glass dish which was way too small (maybe 5" in diameter) to the nest box. After the 30 minutes of panic they took to it with no problem and have been very attentive to their chicks ever since, which is what we hoped for. I've read several breeding sites about holding eggs up to a light and other intimidating processes, but in the end we felt like the best thing was just to let nature take it's course. It may sound dumb, but based on their past behavior, we just really never expected to get to this point. I want to do what is best for them, within reason, but we really don't have much intention to intervene. I feel the parents are the best to care for the chicks so we will just provide healthy food choices and a fresh shallow bathing dish every day (currently they like the dog dish, but cannot get back up to their fancy condo without assistance). The non-seed\non-pellet items have not been touched yet, but I will keep putting them out for 30 minutes morning and evening. If they eventually take some interest great. If not, I do feel better they are eating at least some pellets which they have always refused up till now.

The health of the female has always been a concern for us when she has laid, because we know an all seed diet is not the best. Unfortunately these birds are seed addicts and if they have any kind of choice they only eat seeds. We certainly do not want them to breed year round. In the beginning of this process we weren't excited for them to have chicks at all, but I read up and found that taking eggs away can actually create egg binding, because the female will continue to lay until she has a "clutch." Is it a concern that their new setup (we moved their virtual resort into a corner spot over Christmas) will promote too much breeding? Yes. We are concerned. If they start laying more than 2 clutches a year it is going to turn into a real struggle and at that point I will probably once again try to broach the subject of adopting either the male or female out to a good home. Chicks are a big responsibility, but keeping mama healthy is too and from what I have read it will not be good for her to lay more than 2 clutches a year. But that's a bridge we will cross when we come to it. For now, they seem to be great parents and we are enjoying the process and just trying to provide the best environment we can in the limited space we have. I certainly had no intention of becoming a Cockatiel breeder this spring, but it seems I have taken on that role and am trying to walk the tightrope between letting nature take it's course and providing the best possible environment I can in the space I have.

While I understand, and my roommate who is actually their owner understands that egg laying can be a risky business, I have not been able to convince her to adopt one of them out. If we get in a situation where they are constantly breeding I think I can broach that again. She doesn't want to put the female's health in danger, but she also has an emotional bond and feels guilty about "getting rid" of either of them, even though she certainly now regrets being bullied into buying a pair, rather than an individual companion bird.

 

[kerrielou]

I would definitely consider some precaution in the future especially considering tiels can lay year round. otherwise you're gonna have a little living room breeding situation going on!

You hit the nail on the head there. We have an open floor plan and while they are in the most out of the way corner of the living room, they are still very very much in a living room with 2 adults, 4 kids, and 2 doggies. They are used to that and we've certainly done our best to provide them a good space, but yeah. It certainly feels a little weird to watch "Top Chef" with little tiny hungry tweets going on every hour. When I don't hear them I stress. When I hear them I stress. All I can do is try to maintain some kind of acceptable perimeter of space around their area in a houseful of curious children. The youngest is 9 and oldest 14 so they have actually been very respectful of their space and understand that too much noisy attention, even just looking, is upsetting for the parents and ultimately not good for the chicks. Of course they are already begging to keep one if by some miracle they make it into adolescence, but that is so not part of my agenda. On the other hand I can feel myself getting attached and they aren't even distinguishable yet. It reminds me of the time my mother "rescued" a baby squirrel and promptly told her friend she would take it to her daughter's place because I'm "good at nursing things." (Yes, I set my alarm and got up every two hours to feed a flipping squirrel for six weeks) When did I get this reputation? I do not think of myself as an animal lover or even a kid lover, but when it's MY kid or MY animal, then yeah, I do the best I can.

The best possible outcome of this whole scenario is this pair successfully raises a couple of chicks twice a year. I see that coming. After this hopefully successful hatch there is no doubt in my mind they will lay another clutch at some point, hopefully not till the fall. The challenge at that point will be figuring out how to limit it to just 2 clutches a year. I have no idea what I'm doing lol :S

 

[gibsongrrrl]

If you decide you don't want more babies in the future, you can replace the eggs they lay with dummy/fake eggs and toss out the real ones. Good luck with these!

 

[kerrielou]

If you decide you don't want more babies in the future, you can replace the eggs they lay with dummy/fake eggs and toss out the real ones. Good luck with these!

I've heard mention of that and if they start laying more than twice a year I think we will have to go that route as trying to simulate "winter" is the busiest room of the house is probably not realistic. Out main concern is the mama. While they are obviously thrilled and having the time of their lives with their little chicks, this cannot happen more than twice a year. It just wouldn't be healthy for her and that is the priority.

 

[melissasparrots]

More than likely, they will try to nest again as soon as this clutch fledges if not before. As soon as these babies are no longer using the nest box, I'd take the box away and try to discourage laying. If they lay anyway, replace with fake eggs. You can very quickly get into a situation where the female is exhausted from repeatedly laying eggs.

 

[kerrielou]

More than likely, they will try to nest again as soon as this clutch fledges if not before. As soon as these babies are no longer using the nest box, I'd take the box away and try to discourage laying. If they lay anyway, replace with fake eggs. You can very quickly get into a situation where the female is exhausted from repeatedly laying eggs.

I think this is very good advice. Where can I get these fake eggs? I seriously don't want to stress the health of the mother and really both of them or myself. The male also gets very agitated and we get worried too. It's all around hard on everyone. I'm not against doing this again if all goes well, but I certainly have no intention of becoming a "professional" breeder or putting our mama bird's health at risk. This is an exciting little project, but certainly not a career. I think you are right they will start again right away. I'd like to just order some fakies right away and nip that in the bud. The last thing I want is to put mama bird's health at risk by constantly laying, not to mention the stress the male creates with his very good intentions.

The real error here is entering into a scenario where we are fighting against nature, but that is mostly out of my hands. I don't particularly like it, but need to help do the best thing for all involved.

 

[gibsongrrrl]

The real error here is entering into a scenario where we are fighting against nature, but that is mostly out of my hands. I don't particularly like it, but need to help do the best thing for all involved.

Honestly it may be better for all involved if you didn't allow them to breed and raise babies since you didn't have intentions to become a breeder and aren't necessarily wanting to. Cockatiels are very widely available and there are so many in rescues looking for homes already, so many on craigslist that people can't even give away. Just something to think about if you heart isn't set on it. If you do want to let them have babies yearly, it would be a good idea to have formula, feeding syringes, thermometer, and a brooder in case something goes wrong and you have to pull and hand feed the babies. You may have those things already, just wanted to mention it in case. There are lots of threads here where people weren't prepared thinking the parents would raise the chicks just fine, but that doesn't always happen. better safe than sorry IMO, especially with new parents.

here's where you can get the dummy eggs
DummyEggs.com by Melanie Dummy Eggs Stop Bird Egg Laying! Fake Falso Faux Plastic Eggs

 

[kerrielou]

Honestly it may be better for all involved if you didn't allow them to breed and raise babies since you didn't have intentions to become a breeder and aren't necessarily wanting to. Cockatiels are very widely available and there are so many in rescues looking for homes already, so many on craigslist that people can't even give away. Just something to think about if you heart isn't set on it. If you do want to let them have babies yearly, it would be a good idea to have formula, feeding syringes, thermometer, and a brooder in case something goes wrong and you have to pull and hand feed the babies. You may have those things already, just wanted to mention it in case. There are lots of threads here where people weren't prepared thinking the parents would raise the chicks just fine, but that doesn't always happen. better safe than sorry IMO, especially with new parents.

here's where you can get the dummy eggs
DummyEggs.com by Melanie Dummy Eggs Stop Bird Egg Laying! Fake Falso Faux Plastic Eggs

Thank you for the link. So far everything is going very well. Mama and Daddy did decide they were tired of sitting on the chicks all day long so we bought a reptile light where you can control the temperature based on distance. We turn it on during the day and off at night, because they do sleep with the chicks in the nestbox at night. They still prefer seeds, but we've offered a variety and they've begun to experiment. I hear you on the prices. I did some digging today and just as you indicated I found several "free" adults in need of a home in a statewide search, but none in our area. I'm sure that drives the price down even for hand fed babies and also understand the ramifications to adults not getting adopted if there are lots of babies on the market. Currently in our state there is only one breeder selling hand fed babies, but they are 300+ miles away from us. None of the pet stores here carry them. All in all I don't feel too guilty for bringing two more Cockatiels into the world, but based on current prices it doesn't sound like turning our living room into a Cockatiel factory is going to be any kind of gold mine lol. With what we've put out so far to care for them we'll be lucky to break even.

We've decided to start supplemental hand feeding at day 14, they are currently 9 days old, and will spend some good quality time socializing every day. We've got the formula and several syringes with the hoses when the time comes. We've been checking out youtube videos on hand feeding to make sure we don't over-feed. The female has zero problem with us handling the chicks and changing their litter. The male is still somewhat suspicious, but even he is coming around and since they've pretty much stopped sitting on them during the day we have plenty of opportunity to peek in, change litter, and talk to them. It's fun to see them turn their heads and scoot towards our voices. The older chick's eyes are just starting to open.

All in all things are progressing smoothly and I've already got a couple of bites from folks who would like a hand-fed baby. Ultimately, I just want them to go to a good home, cuz yeah, I've become pretty attached :S I plan to get some of the fake eggs in the next couple of days so we can prevent constant breeding. If all continues to go well with this hatch I'm sure we'll do it again; maybe once or twice a year, just because it's turned out to be quite a fun and fulfilling experience. We'll see how this hatch turns out and go from there. Thank you so much for all the good advice. It's very helpful!

 

[kerrielou]

A big part of the reason I would allow them to do this again is because I have NEVER seen these birds so happy. We've gone through egg drama before, but it usually meant the male compulsively guarding and sitting on the egg(s), chasing the female around, and plucking out her crest. Because of their all seed diet we've also worried for her health laying eggs, but I also think you have to appreciate nature and instinctual behavior. I do not want to continuously breed this pair, especially if we get in a situation where we cannot even give the babies away. I'm less worried about the monetary investment though as long as mamma, daddy, and babies are happy and well cared for. It's taken me a long time to come to terms with the family dynamic of having a pair of cockatiels (who make a considerable mess) that aren't very interested in us beyond the male screaming at the top of his lungs whenever he wants something, including his daily millet. That practice has stopped with my roommate being out of town the larger part of the week and an egg laying female that needs all the nutrients we can coax into her.

I guess I've adopted them at this point and I just don't feel right completely denying them this experience. If we enter a situation where we cannot even give hand-fed and well socialized babies away I may change my tune, but if we can even break even I'm okay with a little national geographic in the living room. I guess this is where my reluctant animal lover kicks in. We'll see how it goes, but if we can break even on a couple of chicks once or twice a year I'm satisfied with that, even if these two adults never become "companion" birds. If the economic balance sheet runs in the red, then we'll likely remove the nestbox permanently, substitute fake eggs, and I'll probably broach the subject of maybe adopting out the male again. They are attuned to humans enough as the providers of all necessities I'm quite confident each of them could make good companions if they were not in a paired situation, but like you said, lots of people are trying to unload their adult cockatiels. Our next door neighbors have a male cockatiel that is caged 24 hours a day in an extremely small cage and it really bothers me (ours are never in a closed cage and have a considerable amount of free roaming real estate). He is in no way tame, but why would he be in such a miserable situation? It's sad how many people irresponsibly enter bird ownership without taking into account life expectancy and basic requirements for these birds to live a happy life.

 

[camelotshadow]

Hope the babies are OK. I'm concerned that you say the parents leave the nest during the day. The chicks need to eat often. If they are not feeding them enough you may have to help out.

Good Luck

 

[kerrielou]

Well our male and the chicks have moved to a new home. I happened to read a classified ad placed by true bird enthusiast looking for a male baby tiel to replace her tiel that recently passed. I won't go into all the details, but needless to say she has 3 times the tiels she planned and she's in love with all of them. She has an aviary and has raised two baby owls and taken in and cared for injured birdies in the past. She's an absolute bird whisperer if I ever saw one and just a great person to boot. The male is already in love with her and babies are doing great.

The female is a little shy, but she's adjusting. My daughter has taken on being her new friend and spends good quality time with her daily. I think she is going to make a great companion.

 

[kerrielou]

Hope the babies are OK. I'm concerned that you say the parents leave the nest during the day. The chicks need to eat often. If they are not feeding them enough you may have to help out.

Good Luck

They still fed the babies several times a day. They just didn't stay in the nest with them except at night. Even in their new home the male still helps feed them.

While it was a fun experience, it's not one I plan on repeating. Stress!!!