[Indigobug1987]

Hello everyone. I got my cockatiel 'Pretty Bird' Almost 4 weeks ago. I'm no expert on birds of any kind but this isn't my first cockatiel. He seems healthy and active. Is very cheerful and loves when i'm messing with him or his cage. His feathers are in good condition as water rolls off like its supposed to. He started out at a good weight but has slowly lost weight over the last couple weeks. I can feel his keelbone quite well and i'm getting very worried about his weight.

Right now I don't have a way to weigh him unless i take him to the vet. Should I break down and take him anyway? Or should I offer baby tiel food? I didn't want to go back to hand feeding him since he has already been weaned. (update for those who may have read my previous posts, he no longer begs me for food. I always put him back on his cage and walked away when he begged. I would wiggle my finger in his food and he will eat a little when i do that. I havn't heard him beg for days now.)

So far he has been offered deluxe cockatiel seed, millit spray, dehydrated fruit treats.

Today I went and bought some food pellet mix and it has bits of apple and peas in it, i also bought him a different kind of fruit treats. (they are smaller and softer than the other i had bought)

He has tried all of it but just doesn't seem very interested. Is there something I can do to encourage him to eat? I've read that eating at the same time helps them feel more comfortable. So far I can make him eat a little by stirring his seeds and stuff with my finger and telling him 'thats a pretty bird' and stuff like that when he eats.

 

[srtiels]

So far he has been offered deluxe cockatiel seed, dehydrated fruit treats.
Today I went and bought some food pellet mix and it has bits of apple and peas in it, i also bought him a different kind of fruit treats.


YUK! (sorry) if I was him I wouldn't eat this either. First off many 'deluxe' mixes of seed are mostly crap and filler and very little seed, and over time a tiel can get malnutrition and starve to death. Tiels are not fond of fruit and just the smell/taste of it may put him off from eating also. Try and find a plain mix of seed that has no colored or anything in it aside from seed...it is more healthful.

I always put him back on his cage and walked away when he begged.

It sounds like you forced weaned him and he has learned that crying/begging is not going to do anything for him.

If the weight loss is noticeable....go to a vet ASAP. Until you can get to the vet try and encourage him to eat the millet. Millet is an excellent source of protein and energy.

 

[Indigobug1987]

Wow i had no idea! I didn't buy the plain seed mix because I thought it would be unappealing.. The deluxe seed is mostly regular seed mixed with sunflowers and some kind of red and green and yellow pellets. I noticed he didn't like the fruit treats at first. (but it had a cockatiel on the package :\ ) He has tried the newer fruit treats but not really eating them.

He has eaten enough to day to make his crop full. Also I would like to add that his poop is normal according to the 'abnormal droppings' post so im not worried about that so much.

 

[Indigobug1987]

What are some things I can offer to him that he will like? He does eat the millet but not like a lot of it. He'll eat a whole thing of it but it takes him a couple days, like he's not crazy about it.

 

[roxy culver]

He's a single tiel so he wont eat it that fast lol. Try offering sunflower seeds too, this should help get his weight back up. Break them open for him if you have to as some tiels either don't know to or are too lazy to break them open. You can get a cheapo gram scale at walmart for like $25 so you can monitor his weight.

 

[srtiels]

If you can get the plain seed mix that would be great. Don't add anything to the plain seed mix....such as pellets or treats. if you offer these have them in a separate bowl. In doing this you can see more of what he is actually eating.

Get creative (see pix) in offering/presenting veggies/greens.

When you are eating...such as a salad or spaghetti, scrambled eggs, canned/frozen corn, etc., let him watch you eat and offer him some. many times a single pet learns to try new things by watching us.

 

[Indigobug1987]

Yeah at first he would NOT eat the sunflowers but he eats them all the time now. I've been watching him closely today. I'm quite pleased with how much he's eaten since i first got him out today. I think I might have just realized the problem. I have a dish on top of his cage that I use to feed him with when he is out of the cage.

Ok. Pretty Bird has a crooked leg, and I felt like he was having trouble perching on his feed dish so I put the flat 5" dish on top of his cage. He sits in it and eats comfortably as he has been doing for the last 2 hours. So i'm thinking. I encourage him quite a bit when he's out of the cage, so he eats. Maybe he just wait until out of cage time to eat properly. Now he does eat when in his cage but not a lot.

Maybe I should make double the effort to give him play time and stuff so he'll eat more too..?? He already gets at least an hour everyday for outside time. 2-3hrs on my off days. Is he getting enough attention?

 

[roxy culver]

He's getting enough attention but if that's when he mainly eats that's not good. You might try putting the flat dish in his cage at the bottom so he can eat in the cage as well.

 

[Indigobug1987]

Today I picked a bunch of sunflowers out of his feed and i cracked most for him but he would also crack them open himself. i would offer the inside part but he would mostly just chew it up and drop it. I didn't see him eat much of it. He has eaten quite a bit tonight though. (filled his belly) How much seed should he eat in one sitting and how many times a day?

 

[enigma731]

The simple answer to this is that he should eat enough to maintain his weight, or gain if he is under weight. You really do need to take him to a vet to figure out what exactly is going on here. It would also be a good idea to get a gram scale so you can weigh him daily until he stabilizes.