[ysnxo]

Hello all,

I have a pair of cockatiels that had a baby cockatiel. He is about 10 weeks old now. They have since then had three other baby cockatiels, they are about 2 days old. Ever since the birth of these younger cockatiels, the father cockatiel chases the firstborn around and pecks at him until he tires. I am not sure what to do. I would separate them but the father cockatiel still feeds the firstborn cockatiel. Is this normal behavior? What are your suggestions?

 

[tielfan]

Would it be helpful to keep the older baby further away from the nest and put the father with him several times a day so dad can feed him?

Does the older chick seem to be close to weaning or is he still very dependent on parent feeding? Most chicks wean at 8-10 weeks but some do take longer. If he's still dependent, is it possible for you to handfeed him if the father bird continues to be aggressive?

 

[Cockatiel love]

I think you should handrear as it can get out of control sometimes and this can lead to the killing of the baby. Formula is supplied in all good pet shop retailers and you need to syringe feed 3-4 times a day. The dad could reject the baby and this can end up with the death of the baby or the starvation.
Please handrear

 

[Berdnerd]

Poor little baby! He must be so confused. Good thing is if he's 10 weeks old, he really should be weaning soon. My little dude is 10 weeks and he decided he was done with formula at 7 weeks, but changed his mind recently so I've been handfeeding him once a day. He's had some health issues. I agree with Tielfan and think you should put the baby in his own little cage, and bring Dad to him once or twice a day so he can be fed. If that doesn't work, try handfeeding him once or twice a day. He really is old enough now that he should only need to be fed once a day, in the evening. How much is he eating on his own?

 

[ysnxo]

Hello all,

I apologize for the delayed response. Since this was of interest to you, I thought I'd update you and let you know which of your suggestions I took and update you on the status of this situation.

I moved the baby cockatiel to a different cage. He has gotten so aggressive. He was biting me hard. Usually he lets me handle him pretty easily. This must have been due to him being frightened.

The first day he made the hungry sounds once (the one he usually makes for dad to feed him) then a couple of hours later he was eating by himself. This was new to me, considering I had never once witnessed the baby cockatiel eating by himself. This made me very happy because I didn't want to have to put him in the cage to be fed by his aggressive dad. He has since been eating by himself.

I put the cages side-by-side so the little one wouldn't get depressed and he spent a lot of the first few days on the side of the cage, pecking at it trying to get to his parents.

At one point the mother cockatiel who hadn't expressed any aggressiveness (up until this point), spread her wings out and walked back and forth along the cage and hissed at the poor little guy.

Thank you tielfan, birdnerd and cockatiel_love. I appreciate your suggestions and interest in my issue.

 

[Berdnerd]

Thanks for the update! Do you have a scale to weigh the baby? Since he has never been hand fed, he may not really beg for food from you. Even if he's eating on his own I would worry that he's not getting enough calories. If you weigh the baby every day you will know if he's doing okay or not By my estimation he is 11 weeks old now and that is old enough to be weaned for sure. I'm betting he'll be just fine but just wanted to point out the weight monitoring thing.