[Deviant]

I there guys. I just have a couple of concerns, earlier this week I pulled a baby cinnamon (about 3 weeks, didn't pay 100% attention to hatch dates) and it isn't growing the way any of my other cockatiel young have before. It has full flight feathers and tail feathers, but beyond that there's only a few pin feathers. There are a few black spots on the head and shoulders where it looks like there might be some growing in, or they've been chewed by the parents. I'm really worried as this is something I've never seen in a cockatiel before.

 

[Lulu-Tiel]

Poor baby.
I don't know anything about this type of thing. The only logical thing to me would be that the parents plucked her but I'm curious to see what the experts say.

 

[bjknight93]

The skin looks very irritated, so I'd think the parents were plucking very badly. If you can, I'd remove the baby from the parents and finish weaning it. I'd also go get a plain rodent salt wheel and hang it in their cage. Some parent birds pluck because they have salt deficiency and get sodium from the baby's feather base as they pluck. You can also provide celery to them because that has a good amount of sodium.

 

[Deviant]

Thank you, I'll chuck some celery in with their next breakfast. I've already removed the baby and started to hand raise it. It's already showing more of an improvment than it was several days ago.