# Abandoned Day Old Chick - Hand rearing Advice!



## Wigeon (Nov 7, 2013)

Hello, I am fairly new here, so if this thread is in the wrong place, please feel free to correct me  Okay, well, I have an amazing breeding pair of cockatiels, they are prolific and they produce more than 3 clutches of about 5 eggs every breeding season. Unfortunatley, they are so fast in breeding that they usually do not wait for us to take the previous babies out (which are about 8-10 weeks old by then) and they start the cycle all over again - which means that by hatch date the parents abandon the hatchlings as soon as they hatch out, because they are focused on their previous babies. (Cockatiel logic?) This is exactly what happened this time, except this time I was here when they hatched out, and by the next morning, the father was already trying to kill the remaining chick. In a whirl of movement, I managed to turf the father out of the nest, rescue the one baby chick the father was trying to kill, and manage to place it in a cardboard box with some old shirts and towels and a hot water bottle.

Okay, so that is basically what happened in the beginning. When I retrieved the day old chick, it had been pecked, with some blood on it's side. It has little scabs in various places, and I am unsure what I am to do about it. I do not know whether putting some disinfectant on it, like Dettol or something, to cleanse the wounds and to prevent them from being infected, would be a good idea, so I will need a few pointers on that one. 

I currently have some hand rearing mix (I use a syringe to feed, I feed from 'right to left' or vice versa.) which I have used previously for other chicks, and the solution is watery, with only a pinch of the mix in it. The little chick has been emptying it's crop quite quickly, every hour or two. We manage to feed it every couple of hours, and it regularly poos as well. From my previous experience with an abandoned Indian Ringneck parrot chick, it only made it to 1 week old before it unfortunately had sour crop, which I am now very wary of. The solution we feed the little cockatiel chick is always tested on our wrist to check the temperature and it is not too cool, but not too hot either. We are trying our best to monitor the chick's digestion, so hopefully it is alright for now. The chick is currently 2 days old, and if it survives yet another night, it shall be 3 days old tomorrow. Also, we may need a few pointers on when we may need to start thickening up the mix to feed the baby. 

Also, with the setup we have currently got, the chick is currently living in a shallow cardboard box, with a hot water bottle (replaced every few hours or so) and a few old shirts and towels. If this is not safe for the baby to be living in, please tell me so that I can fix it up. 

Thankyou for reading this long post, I appreciate it. I am fully aware that the little chick has a slim chance of survival at the moment, but is currently strong, active, a strong healthy cheep, and attempts to grasp the syringe we use in order to pump it's food down. As I mentioned earlier, it seems to be digesting well with it's crop emptying regularly and pooing regularly too. Any help is greatly appreciated  


- note, since today, another chick has hatched out in the parent's nest box, currently monitoring it to see if the parents feed it. The older 8 week old chicks have been since removed, and are unseen by the parents, although they do communicate with each other. :grey tiel::wf cinnamon:


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The best person to advise on this is srtiels aka Susanne. She's a moderator on this board but unfortunately isn't able to spend much time here. But she's frequently available on her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ICR.unite/ so I would recommend that you join that so you can get quick access if you need advice.

It's very typical for cockatiels to start a second clutch before the first clutch has even left the nest. But it isn't normal for them to kill or abandon the second-clutch babies when they hatch in order to focus on the first clutch. I wonder if maybe something else is going on, like the baby having a difficult hatch and being too weak afterward to have a proper food-begging response. When a baby doesn't beg properly the parents will nip the chick and/or shake it, trying to get the normal response. This effort can go very wrong, with the chick being injured or killed. So consider the humidity level in the nest area (which is important for successful hatching) and any other factors that might make it difficult for the baby to hatch out easily.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

P.S. You mentioned that your parent birds have 3 or more clutches per year. That's really too many, it's recommended to have no more than 2 clutches a year. If this is the last clutch of the year then parent fatigue might be an issue, and could be the reason they're abandoning or attacking the babies. It's usually not too difficult to persuade them to not go for a third clutch using hormone control techniques - see http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=32330


----------



## RMAC81 (Oct 16, 2013)

Sounds like you are headed I the right direction with the little one. The main thing is keeping the baby warm and fed. You should mix the formula to the consistency of a pea soup maybe a little thinner. Temperature should be 105* to no hotter than around 112*.I use a candy making thermometer to check the temp of the formula.
The baby needs to be fed every 1.5-2 hours during the day. It should be ok for the night we hardly ever get up and feed a day old in the middle of the night. 
Then continue to keep the baby warm, if you could find a way to tell what the temperature is that would help a lot. Try to keep the temperature in the upper 80s at least for now. Keeping the baby warm also helps the crop to function and empty properly.
The pair is long over due for a rest! At least 6 months in my opinion!


----------



## Wigeon (Nov 7, 2013)

Ah, thanks for your reply  Yes, she seems to be doing alright, feeding every 1.5 - 2 hours like you said, crop seems to be emptying out okay and she is doing regular poos at the moment. We try to keep the hot water bottle temperature constant, and we check on her all the time. She seems to be healing up aswell, and also her eyes have begun to open - at only 4 days old! They are little cracks at the moment, and last night she gave a little hiss when she lost her balance in my Dad's hand. She seems chirpy, and when she knows we are feeding her, she attempts to grab the syringe with her beak, trying to pump that food down! The latest we feed her is about 11:00pm, and that is when we last change the hot water bottle until the early hours of the morning. earl:


----------



## RMAC81 (Oct 16, 2013)

Sounds like you are doing well with the baby, keep it up the most important thing is keeping baby warm so the body functions correctly, and the food is the right temperature. 
You mentioned the pair had hatched another baby?? Are the parents taking care of it? I give my pairs a lot of soft foods especially when they are feeding a clutch of baby's. I would recommend doing that!
Your pair also needs a nice long break! If you have to take the box off I would.


----------



## Wigeon (Nov 7, 2013)

Unfortunately the other chicks did not survive - and my little baby is 6 days old now, with a few problems. She is not cheeping much at all in the last 2 days, and when she does, it is quite weak - and some of the contents in her crop have been refusing to pass down. We have been topping up her crop, but it hasn't been completely empty since this morning. I suspect she may have sour crop, or some other digestive problem, although she is still pooing. She also has red toes, my Dad said that she slipped off her blanketing during the day and slipped down the side of the box - resulting in scorched toes. I do not think she will survive, I do not know of any remedies, and my parents do not want to have to traipse to the vets - when the vets in our local area are not specialized in birds (when we had our last chick, who had a similar problem - if not exact - at the same age, we took him to the vet, and she did not know a thing), and we do not know of any avian specialists nearby. I am also unsure if it is too late - she did show signs yesterday of not much cheeping, and that night she was not digesting food as fast as normal. I did read one tip though, from Just Cockatiels (http://www.justcockatiels.net/sour-and-slow-crop-remedies.html) and that was using the orginal Alka-Seltzer, but you have to be able to empty a chicks crop, and unfortunately neither I, or my parents have any idea of how to do this. As I mentioned earlier, I do not think this little baby will survive in this point in time, but any help is appreciated. Thank you


----------



## ollieandme (Mar 25, 2013)

i'm sorry about your loss. I really hope this chick will pull through.
I've heard before that red skin or feet is a sign of dehydration.


----------



## RMAC81 (Oct 16, 2013)

If the baby is still alive mix the mush so it looks watered down, this should help the crop to move. Also rub the crop a little bit to help break up the food that is staying in it. You could try the spice mix and the alkazetser, I have never had any luck with either of them but I have only used it 2-3 times. It is worth a shot, but probably too late.
I use instant ounces in one feeding every day. It is a powder that helps move things through the crop faster. You can find it on allbirdproducts.com along with a special formula for sour crop.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

srtiels (Susanne Russo) is the expert at giving detailed personal advice during a baby crisis. The best place to reach her is the ICR Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ICR.unite/


----------

