# birth defects??



## SweetSimmy (Sep 1, 2008)

Ok this may be a long story so be ready

well my boyfriend andrew has been breeding his pair of cockatiels. but today we noticed problems with 2 babies (Light and Scribbles). Scribbles has a foot problem. One of his toes sticks out forward instead of bending like it should. heres a poorly drawn pic (i hate those pads on laptops ><)








yeah. the toe sticks out like that, but other toes are completely normal. i dont know what was the cause of this. whether t broke the toe. or it just has a defect like humans can sometimes get too. 
The other cockatiel "light" acts quite differently compared to the other babies. hes only a week old so i can't really say too much, it might just turn out normal when it gets older. but it flaps its wings around alot and andrew finds that its eyes are just a bit bigger than a baby of a week old should have. i couldnt really tell that though. he knows hes not selling scribbles because of the foot. but if light does have a disability or something. hes probably gonna keep that as well and keep an eye on it. 
the parents of these babies are purebreds so its not anything related to inbreeding. and their past nests all came out fine. i told andrew that maybe at a certain age cockatiels aren't meant to keep having babies. but the things is they are only maybe 5-7 years old. But i don't know, people can't have kids if their too old either. :wacko:
right now im not going to worry too much about light. maybe its just being a baby. But then again andrew bred babies many times and should know.
Scribbles we know isnt going anywhere. just gonna stay with him. 
But the good thing is, they both are eating right and getting good care from us and the parents. we hand fed them for the first time today . there is a sixth baby along the way, one of the other babies is shadow, and it was born on halloween. light was second born the day after halloween, scribbles was third, and then there was the other two

update all of a sudden: i had the wrong baby in mind when i said light was a week old, light is a couple weeks. but still looks like hes about a week. andrew said its growing slower than the other babies. this now seems more serious. were gonna keep an eye on them to make sure their fine. im wondering if maybe its not getting fed enough like the other babies or something. and is lacking nutrition. me and andrew will have to make sure its getting its nutrtion with handfeeding

ill update if anything else happens or there is not change in light. ill get pictures once we take some.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It would be a good idea to take both of these babies to an avian vet, who is the only one who can tell you whether anything is really wrong with them. Especially the baby with a foot problem - problems like this are sometimes easy to correct in a young, growing chick but impossible to fix in an adult.

Example: When Snowy was very young she developed a problem with her wingtip - it was sticking out at a 90 degree angle to her body:








I took her to the vet and he taped it into place, but the tape wouldn't stay on! But we were finally able to fix it with simple physical-therapy treatment at home and now her wing is perfect.

Another chick, Casper, broke his toe somehow when he was 6 months old. The vet put some tape on his foot and in a week he was fine.


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## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

That is strange, I would think that light is not getting feed enough. I would take them to an avian vet, better safe than sorry.


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

5 and 7 are no where near too old. Males can be bred well into their teens. I personally would not breed a hen past the age of 12. The same kind of problems that occur breeding too young begin to re-occur as the hens get older. If you could tape the funny toe in a more natural position you can probably correct it. I have used regular bandaids to do something similar. You will have to cut it off rather than pull it off tho. It's a GOOD thing you're hand feeding now. It may help the little one to catch up. His eyes may look so big because he is so small. Eyes remain the same size from the day they are hatched.


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## sweetrsue (Jul 8, 2008)

I found something in my book re: deformed feet in baby birds. It only lists 2 causes: "Calcium deficiency while growing" and "Poorly healed broken bone". Do hey have a ready source of Calcium? Cuttlebone or Mineral block or both?


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## SweetSimmy (Sep 1, 2008)

Yep. But Anyways thanks for the help guys. we started handfeeding the one who acts weirdly. its acting way normal now and is growing fine. the other ones toe is going back to normal (bf fixed it)


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Wonderful, I'm glad the foot was fixable!


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