Urgent Aspiration/choking baby cockatiel

[Troy72898]

I’m not sure but I think my baby tiel was aspirating. I couldn’t make it to the vet in time before he passed. He was 15 days old and still in the nest box with the parents. Im worried the parents are too young (2 years and 3 years old). Should I pull the rest of the clutch and start hand feeding? Is this not aspiration but something else? Any info to help prevent this from happening again would be appreciated. I have video links below

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

 

[sunnysmom]

I'm very sorry for your loss. I don't have baby bird experience but this is a good resource, www.ask-noodles.com - and I'll tag some people.

@Ripshod @Zara @karen256

 

[Zara]

I´m sorry for your loss

Is this not aspiration but something else?

The crop is completely empty on that bird, and his sibling is also with little food in crop.
Are you sure the parents were feeding the birds?It can happen where parents just decide to stop for seemingly no reason.
If they are not, but are brooding the chicks, you can try supplement feeding the other chick to fill his crop. It should only empty once completely (overnight).
Do you know how to handfeed correctly?

 

[Troy72898]

Are you saying it’s not aspiration and instead he’s not being fed enough and died from lack of food? I’m still not sure why he passed. I tried to get the baby to eat but he wouldn’t open the beak and I didn’t force it as I’ve heard never to do so (and if he was choking I didn’t want to worsen the situation).

I’m not experienced in hand feeding but I’ve watched a professional hand feeding in person. Ive also done tons of internet research on hand feeding. I’ve been trying to “co-feed” recently so both the parents and babies don’t become malnourished and it’s been going great. I was only filling their crops a little more than half way, once or twice during the day. Not during nights. Then letting the parents finish the job. I had woke up to this so something happened while I was sleeping. It was very early in the morning so I assumed empty crop was normal.

 

[Zara]

Are you saying it’s not aspiration and instead he’s not being fed enough and died from lack of food?

No, I´m just stating something else that it could be given the images. You won´t know for sure unless you take the little one to the vet for a necropsy (if you want to do that, keep him sealed in a ziploc bag in the fridge until then).

The choice is yours whether you want to try co parenting (you feed the chick throughout the day and into the night under close supervision) or remove the chick from the nest now for hand rearing. I would recommend using a small metal teaspoon to feed the bird with while you are still new to hand feeding. It lessens the probability of aspirating them.
It´s nice to keep the birds with their parents for as long as possible, but when those parents aren´t able to care for the chicks, there´s no other choice unfortunately.

 

[Troy72898]

No, I´m just stating something else that it could be given the images. You won´t know for sure unless you take the little one to the vet for a necropsy (if you want to do that, keep him sealed in a ziploc bag in the fridge until then).

The choice is yours whether you want to try co parenting (you feed the chick throughout the day and into the night under close supervision) or remove the chick from the nest now for hand rearing. I would recommend using a small metal teaspoon to feed the bird with while you are still new to hand feeding. It lessens the probability of aspirating them.
It´s nice to keep the birds with their parents for as long as possible, but when those parents aren´t able to care for the chicks, there´s no other choice unfortunately.

 

[Troy72898]

I’ve decided to pull them from the nest. They’ve laid another clutch of eggs this past week and I think they gave up on the babies. I should’ve payed closer attention. I’ll take your advice and get a metal teaspoon. I really want these chicks to make it.

Thank you SO MUCH for the info and help I really appreciate everything, especially your quick responses!!!

 

[sunnysmom]

Not your question, but you may want to take steps to discourage so much egg laying. It's not healthy for a female tiel to lay a lot of eggs. It sounds like you have done a lot of research so you probably know but it's important for a female egg laying tiel to have enough calcium, etc.

 

[Troy72898]

Not your question, but you may want to take steps to discourage so much egg laying. It's not healthy for a female tiel to lay a lot of eggs. It sounds like you have done a lot of research so you probably know but it's important for a female egg laying tiel to have enough calcium, etc.

I 100% agree and I’ve been trying everything to prevent the eggs. Though my living situation is the problem, having male and female forced to live in the same cage. I’ll be moving in a few days and should be able to stop this behavior easily. She eats about 3 quarters of a cuttle bone per day and I also put calcium and vitamin supplements in their food. To be honest, I put more effort and money into their health than my own LOL.

 

[sunnysmom]

I 100% agree and I’ve been trying everything to prevent the eggs- once you know longer have eggs/babies. Though my living situation is the problem, having male and female forced to live in the same cage. I’ll be moving in a few days and should be able to stop this behavior easily. She eats about 3 quarters of a cuttle bone per day and I also put calcium and vitamin supplements in their food. To be honest, I put more effort and money into their health than my own LOL.

Once you no longer have eggs/babies, you can try: removing anything that can be seen as a nest, frequently rearranging the cage may help as tiels usually only lay in an environment they are comfortable in,
and bumping their hours of sleep by 2 hours for a couple weeks may trick them into thinking it's winter and not time to lay eggs.

 

[Zara]

I’ve decided to pull them from the nest. They’ve laid another clutch of eggs this past week and I think they gave up on the babies. I should’ve payed closer attention. I’ll take your advice and get a metal teaspoon. I really want these chicks to make it.

Then it seems that is likely what happened - the parents abandoned the chicks. Yes, definitely pull the other chicks for handrearing.
It´s always important to have a good look in the nest daily to be sure no eggs appear, and that the birds are being fed well etc.
I would recommend boiling those new eggs, allowing to cool, and put them back in the nest. The parents are not doing a very good job and should be given a break. If breeding was something you are serious about, you can always try again in a few months.