# Cleaning a 1 month old cockatiel



## cjwcn (Jan 24, 2010)

How would you go about cleaning a baby cockatiel. I'm hand feeding one right now and when I feed him he gets pretty messy and I try to clean him up, but I've noticed some of his feathers get a little hard from the food not coming off. Would it be ok to give him a spray bath and dry him off after or should I do something else. Thanks for any help.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

If you change how you hold your hand as you are handfeeding amny times you will have a totally clean faced baby that would not have any food on the feathers. below is how I hold my babies heads, I am left-handed so it would be reversersed for rightys.

As to cleaning the baby now I would not completely wet the bird. At this age the uimmune system is not fully developed and if it gets chilled too much it does not have a developed immune defense. What you might do is just wet the small areas around the beak to work the food from the feathers only.


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## cjwcn (Jan 24, 2010)

Thanks very much srtiels. That's very helpful. I will definitely start holding him that way when I feed him.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

A warm, wet washcloth works well for fresh food (and just look at the remarkable number of words starting with "w" in that sentence!). To get the baby clean, put the washcloth over your fingers and lightly pinch it over the dirty area, then draw it gently away from the chick and toward yourself (assuming that you and the baby are facing each other). Don't wipe the washcloth toward the chick's back or too much downward because this mainly smears the food around on the chick. Don't worry about getting every single speck because small amounts tend to disappear - I'm not sure if they fall off or if the parents preen them off.

Large globs of dried-on food are harder to remove. If you have those you'll have to soak them with warm water.


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