# My boys turning yellow!



## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

Hey i'm Keli and i'v had my male Cockatiel Milo for nearly 10 and a half years. I'm not 100% sure how old he was when i got him but it was before his first malt (he still had a grey face) so i'm guessing only a few months old, making him closer to 11. He is a wonderful bird and we have a close bond however recently i have become concerned about him. Hes turning yellow! he has random yellow feathers amongst his grey that never used to be there and his orange cheeks are fading and becoming less defined. also his feet which have always been soft and pink now look grey and dry. Is this a part of ageing for him or is my worry justified? also recently he has become very agitated and just generally behaving weirdly, like everything frustrated him, i don't know why as he gets plenty of company and time out of his cage. anyone else had this problem?


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

If you can post several photos to show what you are talking about that would be helpful.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

A change in feather color can be a symptom of liver disease, which is treated by improving the diet. Can you tell us what his diet is like now?


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

Hey, thanks for the replies. I will try and get a picture up later tonight. He is a very fussy eater so basically will only eat his cockatiel mix, honey bell, apples, very occasional banana, brown bread and potato. I'v tried giving him vegetables and cockatiel supplements but he wont have a bar of them.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

This is not a well-balanced diet and could be part of the problem. If you are in the US or Canada you can go to the Lafeber website at http://www.lafebercares.com/contact.html and send them an email requesting free samples of cockatiel Nutriberries. These are nutritionally equivalent to pellets but they look like seed balls, and most cockatiels love them. If he's willing to eat them it will help put some more balance into his diet.


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

yes i'v been fighting over his diet for years, hes just so stubborn. I'm in New Zealand but ill ask around if any of the pet stores either have them (or something similar) or, could order them in. If not ill try the vet however we don't have a vet anywhere even nearly close by that treats birds but, i'm pretty sure i'v seen bird products in there when i'v taken my cat in.


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

oh, and i just had an idea that maybe if i mash the veggies he might be more inclined to eat them? and do you know of anything i could mix in with them to make it more appealing to him. He has a real sweet tooth.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Well he likes his seeds right? With mine, when I want to introduce a new veggie, I sprinkle seeds on top and set it on top of the cage. They inevitably eat the seeds and the veggies at the same time.


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

i just offered him a green bean and arrourding to him it tried to kill him


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

Hve you tried sweetcorn, all my cockies loves sweetcorn. Most tend to like broccoli as well. I buy frozen veg and just cook it through in the microwave for a few minutes.


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

Peas were a hit with my tiel. And corn. I did mash some of the vegies in with 'egg and biscuit' mixture at first, with some pellets. Arnie also likes stemmy stuff, like the stem of a spinach leaf, or some celery - she likes crunching stuff. Does your tiel eat mashed potato? You could substitute some of the potato for sweet potato and mash in peas and broccoli, carrot etc - or just cut up everything into teeny tiny pieces amongst the potato.


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

thats a great idea Belinda. usually i buy frozen mixed vegetables and steam them until they defrost. It has peas and corn in it. He loves potatoes and anything with potato in it so heres hoping he wont mind the extras lol


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## QTiels (Jan 24, 2011)

Maybe you could puree vegetables in a blender or food processor and mix the puree with mashed up potatoes so he won't notice the vegetables too much if at all. You might try to make birdie bread with vegetables and fruit added in as tiny pieces or in puree form. He'll think he's just eating bread instead of fruits and vegetables. Sprouted seeds are also popular with birds and they're much healthier than plain seeds.


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks qtiels, i have a bread maker (i think) so that could work well. I had the strangest experience with him tonight. I was offering him carrots and corn and he was acting all excited when he saw me approaching with them and was asking for them (he says hello over and over again when i have something he wants, bless him). Anyway I gave them to him and i really thought he was gonna eat them as usually when i offer him something he doesn't want he goes crazy and starts attacking it. Well he didn't attack them, he just threw them out his cage and carried on making a "nest" with his news paper. Then I offered him a coli-flower and he started snuggling up to it and trying to sit on it, like he was hatching and egg or something. so strange. He goes through phases where he will build a nest and guard it with his life. he will not leave it to come out of his cage and attacks anyone/ thing that so much as gets within 6 feet of his cage (he lets me closer). This usually lasts a few days then he goes back to normal. He has always "humped" his swing a lot, do you think maybe his internal clock is ticking? lol


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Or his hormone level is high...is he on the long nights treatment? This will help bring his levels down and he should stop the nesting behavior. Its 12-14 hours of sleep a night...its worked for mine and they were going nesting crazy on me!


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## Dave & Tito (Aug 1, 2010)

Most of what he's eating (apart from the banana) has an element of crunch to it. Tito loves crunchy things and the greens I had the fastest success with was snow pea sprouts, snow peas themselves, and stems of baby spinnach. He ignored them if I placed them in a food dish but tore them up if I hung them like toys. I'm pretty sure it started as play, and eventually became eating. 

Once he was eating those, if I was home for the day I'd fill the cage with greens to explore and wouldn't put seed or pellets in the cage till the late afternoon. Perhaps there was an element of starving him into eating the greens at first. Now there are pellets in the cage all day but hé'll eat greens in the morning.

I know Tito eas pellets and your likes seeds; simply mixing them together and slowly reducing the seeds in the mix works well over several weeks.

Keep at it, he'll change his diet but it might take a while! Good luck!


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## Milo (Feb 12, 2011)

Thanks for the advice guys. i managed to get him to have a few bites of coli-flower tonight so thats improvement. Also i got some conditioning feed that is all natural and has pretty much everything they need in it. Its got apple in it too which is why i picked it since he looves his apples. I mixed i with his seeds and hes definitely been eating it! yay! hes rejected all other supplement type food iv tried on him so far. I still want him eating his veges though, but i guess that will take persistence and time, at least hes got a supplementary feed he will actually eat now too  .


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*Please*...if you can post some pix's of the bird it would really help. A diet change is not going to do much good if the feather color change is a result from liver damage. If so, that needs to be addressed more than diet right now.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

OK...I found some pix. Is your bird getting a yellow-greenish wash like this bird?


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## 4birdsNC (Dec 4, 2010)

I have been told by my aviary vet that raw potatos are not good for tiels...


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