# Questions about new cockatiel



## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

So I posted about my new cockatiel Penny a few days ago, and for those who were concerned she's doing better, her poops look more normal and she's no longer refusing meals.
However the slouching has continued and we will be taking her to the avian vet very soon, as soon as we gather the money. Until then I thought I'd make some speculations and ask a whole lot of questions and whom better better to ask than a group full of cockatiel lovers 

Question/Speculation #1- Is it possible for a bird to be mentally handicapped? I've noticed Penny has a lot of trouble finding her food dishes but has no problem eating out of our hands. And sometimes she gets stuck climbing and forgets how to get back on her perch.















Question/Speculation #2- Does inbreeding affect things? I was told by someone that if a cockatiel has a small bald spot behind their spike it could've been caused by inbreeding. Is that true? And could that be the cause of anything? Penny has a bald spot. You can kind of see it in this photo.








Question/Speculation #3- Are some birds uncomfortable sleeping on perches? Penny leans forward when she starts to fall asleep or leans against the walls of her cage then abruptly wakes herself up. She also seems sleepy during the day despite her 12-13 hours of recommended darkness. Would a shelf in her cage be something I should look into? Here she is leaning leaning forward. And in the picture above where you can see her bald spot, she's leaning against the wall to sleep.








Question/Speculation #4- Could it be possible that the person we bought Penny from lied to us about her age and she's just aging? Can anyone tell from this picture her approximate age?








I'm sorry about all the questions.
But I would really appreciate any input.


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## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

Here are a few more picture of Penny.


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## Tequilagirl (Mar 4, 2013)

Do I see a leg band in the first picture? It should tell the hatch year.

As far as I know the bald spots can happen when you breed 2 lutinos together, but there are other people with far more knowledge about that sort of thing on this site.

Hope you get your answers, she's beautiful!


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

Penny is so cute, I hope you get the answers you are looking for and that she does well at the vet.


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## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

Tequilagirl said:


> Do I see a leg band in the first picture? It should tell the hatch year.
> 
> As far as I know the bald spots can happen when you breed 2 lutinos together, but there are other people with far more knowledge about that sort of thing on this site.
> 
> Hope you get your answers, she's beautiful!


Yes, she does have a leg band
But we we're worried the breeder might've done something shady
I guess we're just getting paranoid or grasping at straws haha


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## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

CharVicki said:


> Penny is so cute, I hope you get the answers you are looking for and that she does well at the vet.


She is a cutie pie isn't she 
Thankyou


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

About bald spots: they occur when like to like mutations are bred. Say, a lutino hen and a lutino cock. Inbreeding will also have the same effect. Her parents might have been birds that the breeder didn't know were related, or they could have both been lutinos. Generally if a breeder does this, the chicks produced are weaker, smaller and don't live as long as they should.

The leaning/slouching does sound really worrying. Make sure you explain it in depth with the vet and you might want to take some photos along too. Best of luck.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

Your baby is adorable, I love her name too! 

I will try answer your questions the best I can. 



judieg11 said:


> Question/Speculation #1- Is it possible for a bird to be mentally handicapped? I've noticed Penny has a lot of trouble finding her food dishes but has no problem eating out of our hands. And sometimes she gets stuck climbing and forgets how to get back on her perch.


How big is her cage? I ask because, she may find it easier if everything is down low, just for now, until she learns to get around the cage and is more used to it, lots of other young Cockatiels are the same. You may also want to try platform perches, and connecting other things like a ladder, ramps, and such to the perches, some prefer to be able to walk across perches and etc to get to where they want to go rather than have to climb around. She will improve soon enough, just give her time. Is she clipped?



judieg11 said:


> Question/Speculation #2- Does inbreeding affect things? I was told by someone that if a cockatiel has a small bald spot behind their spike it could've been caused by inbreeding. Is that true? And could that be the cause of anything? Penny has a bald spot. You can kind of see it in this photo.


The bald spot behind the crest is very common in Lutinos, it is due to previous inbreeding.



judieg11 said:


> Question/Speculation #3- Are some birds uncomfortable sleeping on perches? Penny leans forward when she starts to fall asleep or leans against the walls of her cage then abruptly wakes herself up. She also seems sleepy during the day despite her 12-13 hours of recommended darkness. Would a shelf in her cage be something I should look into? Here she is leaning leaning forward. And in the picture above where you can see her bald spot, she's leaning against the wall to sleep.


In my opinion, that is worrying. Whether the Cockatiel is a baby or adult, they shouldn’t slouch over while sleeping, usually they tuck their head back and have one foot up. She needs to see an Avian Vet asap, I know you said you are going to take her, but please have her seen as soon as you can, they can hide any illnesses for sometime, and it can be too late by the time they start showing the symptoms. A platform perch may be more comfortable for her, but I don’t think it will stop the slouching. 



judieg11 said:


> Question/Speculation #4- Could it be possible that the person we bought Penny from lied to us about her age and she's just aging? Can anyone tell from this picture her approximate age?


She looks pretty young to me, I am not sure about her approx age though, maybe between 7-10 weeks?

I got Ella, who is a Lutino too, when she was 7 weeks old. Here is a photo of her (the day I brought her home from the breeders at 7 weeks old):


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

She does seem really young and the issue with the food bowls could be that she has somewhat regressed in her weaning and needs you to hand feed her for a bit just to get her back on track. This can happen when younger birds are sold. Continue to hand feed her as long as she'll take it just to be on the safe side. Do you have a gram scale? Monitoring her weight would be a great way to make sure she's eating enough and is healthy. Baby tiels are very clumsy, so she may not yet have figured out all the ins and outs of perch climbing and balancing. Honestly, the leaning over really looks like a younger baby trying to figure out perching and hopefully a vet can help figure out why she's still doing it. In the nest, babies will sometimes lay on their stomachs, I don't know if that's what she's trying to do on her perch or not. 

Bald spots in lutinos are very common. Its something that breeders are working very hard to breed out of the mutation. Back when lutino first appeared, the only way to get visual lutino babies was to breed the original visual lutino (it was a hen) back to her father to get more babies of that mutation. This caused bald spots. There has been a lot of improvements of breeding it out, but its really hard to do when people don't understand breeding. Breeding two pearls together can also cause a thinning behind the crest, so lutino isn't the only mutation affected. Her bald spot is probably genetic, but I doubt its due to inbreeding on the breeder's part. Check her leg band, it should at least tell you the year she was born. Did the breeder give you a hatch certificate?


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## Indigobug1987 (Feb 18, 2012)

What a pretty girl! The other posters are correct about the bald spot. Its somewhat normal in the lutinos.

She doesn't appear to be old. She is bright eyed and has a pinky beak. (in my experience this is indicative of a younger bird)


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## Paleghost13 (Sep 14, 2012)

judieg11 said:


> Yes, she does have a leg band
> But we we're worried the breeder might've done something shady
> I guess we're just getting paranoid or grasping at straws haha


If she has a closed leg band, then it had to be put on her when she was just a few days to a week old. Once the baby grows the closed band will not fit over the foot. That's why shows require closed bands on birds, because they cannot be faked. It would be possible to get older bands to put on a new baby I guess, but an older bird could only have a recent band if the breeder years ago planned ahead and ordered 2013 bands or something. Possible, but not very likely. Odds are good that if it is a closed band, that the year it lists is accurate.

Open bands are another story, since they can be switched out.


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## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

CharVicki said:


> About bald spots: they occur when like to like mutations are bred. Say, a lutino hen and a lutino cock. Inbreeding will also have the same effect. Her parents might have been birds that the breeder didn't know were related, or they could have both been lutinos. Generally if a breeder does this, the chicks produced are weaker, smaller and don't live as long as they should.
> 
> The leaning/slouching does sound really worrying. Make sure you explain it in depth with the vet and you might want to take some photos along too. Best of luck.


Thank you
We will be taking photos
And we asked the breeder but he says her parents weren't related
I guess it must be genetic like roxy culver said


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## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

Renae said:


> Your baby is adorable, I love her name too!
> 
> I will try answer your questions the best I can.
> 
> ...


It's not a large cage
Here is a picture








But we did out best to readjust her food and water tray so she can easily reach them.
I will be building her ladders and ramps and possibly a shelf perch tonight.
Yes she's clipped. When we got her, her wings were really full and she could fly which made it hard to try and tame her so we clipped them.

I'm going to try the platform perch and see if that makes a difference.

That's about the age we were told she was, 10 weeks.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be so extensive.


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## judieg11 (Jul 4, 2013)

> Roxy culver


Thats funny because now that you mention it, she really likes to be cuddled while she sleeps. My brother rubs her cheeks and she backs up into him and closes her eyes.

No, we didn't get a hatch certificate but the band is consistent with what the breeder said.
We are no longer doubting her age.
As for the bald spot, thank you for the great information


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