# Plucking chicks



## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

I have a male tiel that plucked hie mate and had stopped with the regular introduction of cooked egg.. 

now i have noticed that he is starting on the two young chicks, one is 3 weeks tomorrow and the other is 3 weeks 2 days later. it is not full on plucking but enough that i have seen evidence of blood drops on the male (he is all white so very obvious)

What is the best action to take here, should i look at removing him and trying to help supplement feed the chicks with the hen?


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

I would try removing him and she should be fine to feed the babies herself. Just keep a eye that they are being fed enough. They are old enough that she probable isn't in the nest all the time anyway. So she'll have time to eat. Also put millet in the nestbox for her to eat. I have had to do this with my budgies and the Momma raised them just fine on her own. 

Unless you are planing on handfeeding?


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## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

i wasnt planning on handfeeding them i was just more concerned how she would go with them alone, yes she does spend time out more now eating etc, and i normally handle the chicks then so they are not scared of me in thhe future


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## rockysmum (Mar 1, 2011)

hi, i have had the same problem , i had to remove the male, the female did feed the babies but she did struggle so i did help , i left the chicks in the nest box with mum but at feeding time i took out some to top up with hand feeding formula, if you have not hand fed birds before seek advise and help, hand feeding is a skill that if not done correctly can be disastrous for the chick
Your mummy bird only has 2 chicks so im sure she will cope just fine, my mum had 6 so thats why i had a problem, just keep an eye on them , keep Mummy supplied with lots of food


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

That's what I was thinking. With just 2 babies she should manage just fine.


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## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

here they are and a pic also of the plucked area, i noticed as the male dad is white and he had the blood stains on him  


















also would love to know what the chicks will be the mum is a whiteface cinnamon, and the dad a whiteface platinum pearl pied (as far as we can tell)


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

This is what the genetics calculator gives you with those mutations:
Boys:
100.0% 1.0 natural blue(whiteface) /opaline(pearl)-pallid(platinum) cinnamon ADM.pied
Girls:
100.0% 0.1 natural opaline(pearl) pallid(platinum) blue(whiteface) /ADM.pied


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## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

i removed the male today, now i just hope the mum is ok and will feed them and herself (someone told me how once they had to do that and the lone parent died as they didnt save any food for themselves and used it all on the babies, so now im a little worried )


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## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

well after i removed the male all seemed to go well as the mum continued to feed them and i gave them a feed everymorning to help her out, then the mum laid another egg and wouldnt leave the neztbox, when she did the chicks followedher starving, so i weighed them and they had gone from over 90grams each to 60grams each, i have now pulled them and feeding them full time

my worry is i work 2 days a week and will be gone from 9am till 3pm, will this be a major problem for them to miss that feed inbetween??


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*my worry is i work 2 days a week and will be gone from 9am till 3pm*
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At this age they should only be fed three times a day....soon to be reduced to two times a day. 

You can fed them right before you go to work and as soon as you get home. And the last feeding of the day around 9PM.

When you go down to two feeding you will be skipping the middle of the day feeding.


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## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

oh i was giving them more feeds thankyou for that


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

You can start offering them some food in the bottom of the cage. They'll start to pick at it. Still give them there feeding but start offering them fresh food, pellets and seeds. Maybe put a millet for them to pick at.


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## Caroline (Jan 15, 2011)

well today the boy was eating some pellets and ive seen the girl nibbling at some millet so i will leave so veggies in there too for them to nibble on  thankyou again 

here is a pic of them 
Pebbles and Bamm bamm


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

oh they are so pretty. As they start to eat more and more you'll find that they will not want as much formula. I use this chart as a guid to how much to feed. If the bird is under weight though I give more feedings. 

http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/handfeeding.html


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