# I heard about calcium!!



## crazy4tiels88 (Aug 10, 2008)

I heard if a female cockatiel doesn't have enough calcium that maybe the cause of them plucking their chicks!! Chiquita plucks her chicks so I have to handfeed them every time. I have been giving her a mash of bread, milk, lentils, pellets, and flax seed and I will continue this when the chicks hatch!! Is their any other calcium supplements besides cuttlebone and my mash that I can give her? I want to see if she doesn't pluck her chicks this time!! I will see what happens because she is a good mother otherwise!! Thanks, Melissa


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

I never heard about birds getting a bread and milk mash before. Mabey you could get a supplement something like this https://healthybird.net/store/produ...d=115&osCsid=d18f86fd1cf9aa7647b2363a4686f045 Hopefully someone with breeding experience will be able to help you better.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Some hens will pluck the chicks to try to chase them out of the nest when they want to start a new clutch. If this is the problem, the plucking will start when the chicks are close to fledging age. Shodu did that with her first clutch, and I had to ban her from the nesting cage and let Buster take care of the chicks by himself.


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

I offer a mineral block as well as a cuttlebone and I put Quinoa (a grain high in calcium) in with their beans


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

I've always been told Milk is toxic to birds and i just read the other day that bread thickens their blood (but no one was able to show where they found that out at)


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

I never give bread because it is generally pretty low in nutritional value!


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

I feed mine occasionally whole wheat bread, or like 8 grain bread, they don't get white bread though


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I've always been told Milk is toxic to birds


Milk contains lactose and birds are lactose-intolerant. There are certain dairy products that are OK for birds because they have little or no lactose. Yogurt is OK, the beneficial bacteria have pre-digested the lactose. I'm babysitting a young conure who loves to eat yogurt off a spoon, and it would be nice if I could persuade the tiels to go for it. Certain kinds of cheese are also OK - I don't know exactly which types but I've heard cheddar is OK. 

Regular milk is loaded with lactose but I've seen old books that recommend giving bread soaked in milk to breeding birds so it must not do too much harm. I'd prefer a more modern feeding regimen though.

When Buster and Shodu were breeding, their number one favorite chick-feeding food was whole grain bread! And the chicks were all robust and strong. The number two favorite food was pellets. The parents would eat them and then drink water to soften them up before regurging to the chicks.


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