Mother Cockatiel biting baby's pin feathers!

[henney]

Pearl's babies are 4 wks old and she is biting their pin feathers so their not growing out. I put the babies in a smaller box so she can't pull feathers at night. During the day she is busy feeding them and doesn't stay in the nest box. Percy, the father doesn't do this. Is this the only solution?

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Your Best Bet is to remove the chick and hand feed it cockatiels never stop plucking if you leave it any longer it will end up looking like this

I'm not even sure this will ever feather out the dad in my case plucked the **** out of it.

 

[henney]

Wow, this baby was really abused. I took mine away from the mother except for supevised feedings,only thing I could do and all her feathers grew back. I'm sure your will to. Keep me posted.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Wow, this baby was really abused.  I took mine away from the mother except for supevised feedings,only thing I could do  and all her feathers grew back.  I'm sure your will to.  Keep me posted.

Her feathers are growing back the only reason she made it because one of my male budgies took over the feedings.

 

[ladybirdb12]

Do you know how to hand feed your baby? Its four weeks old, most if the time I pull babys out when they are 12 days old, at most its 3weeks old. If you do not pull it now, and start hand feeding it,
1 it will not be a pet, it will be scared of humans
2 you are giving more stress to the parents as they have to eat more to feed the baby also themselves

Please pull the baby out.if you do not know bow to handfeed them check around for a breeder that can show you how and might feed your baby.
the baby food (exact) will help the feathers grow back
I love teils, I love to hand feed them, show them all about love.babys that I have and had, love human we are part of there flock they will have a great future, not stuck in a cage for the rest of their life because they bite!!!
even my breeders are pets they love to get out and play.
So please if your breeding teils give them a future full of love.
Sorry if I came off upset, but letting the parents do all the work, is not going to give the Baby a happy and loving future.
At times (many) had to hand feed baby's that poped right out of an egg, which I had to feed every two hours, it was very stressfull because they had to learn to Bob their head so the food went down the crop.

 

[theoldchick]

Get the chick out of there. As mentioned either hand feed the chick or allow supervised feedings.

And don't breed that hen again.

 

[ladybirdb12]

Just anther post, I breed these wonderfully birds for a hobbies not for money.
I have people come to me and ask if I can handfeed their baby birds I will, I do not charge them a dime, I have a wonderfully time teaching the babys, that is my payment, knowing that they are going to be the best pet for someone for as long as 25 years or more.
So I know there are breeders around that will do it for nothing.
I give my parents (bird) 100 % whole wheat bread and give them exact baby food to eat they in turn will give this to their babys, when the baby just hatched.
Do not over breed the birds, give them 6 months to a year break, birds give me two to three batches, then its time for a rest.this might stop the feather picking its due to STRESS AND VITAMINS (not spelled right)

 

[srtiels]

Hi....I know this is an older thread, but I came across it when doing a Google search when researching plucking. From personal experience I have found that cockatiel parents may pluck for several reasons.

The following is from an article I am working on for my website.


Plucking can occur with the best of parents. Just because they pluck does not mean that they are bad parents. Over the years I have observed several causes for the plucking of babies in the nest. In addition, I also learned that if all is well cockatiel parents are not naturally pluckers.

It is disheartening when you look in the nestbox and see that a baby has been plucked. The first instinct is to remove the baby, which is normal. But, in doing this it may not resolve the problem if you do not know the cause. Therefore the same thing can occur with succeeding clutches, and the normal assumption usually is that you have bad parents that should never be bred again, and they are sold. This resolves the problem for the breeder but not the bird. And, in doing so may reinforce this behavior in the bird/birds.

Another thing I have learned is to ‘Listen to your birds’ What this means, especially since they do not talk, is to be observant of body behavior and other clues of if they are happy, discontent, having problems etc. In watching them they can teach you a lot.

The following is the most common causes for plucking:

1...Jealousy
2...Breeding birds programmed by the breeder or prior breeder
3...Nutritional deficiencies, specifically sodium
4...Parents want to go back to nest
5...Red mite attack


Since this is the mother doing this I would lean towards a possible Sodium Defeciency in the diet. This illustration shows some supplements and sources of sodium that can be given to the parents when they have chicks in the nest: http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/...nd Reproductive system/Sodium-Foods-ILLUS.jpg

 

[Magic Birdie]

Your Best Bet is to remove the chick and hand feed it cockatiels never stop plucking if you leave it any longer it will end up looking like this

I'm not even sure this will ever feather out the dad in my case plucked the **** out of it.

poor bird

 

[GuineaHQ]

With budgies they say to use a calcium block so the hen chews that and not the chicks