5 week old cockatiel’s buldging stomach

[Theresiairene]

Hello! I’m first starter in hand feeding or raising baby birds– I noticed that my 5 week old cockatiel’s stomach started buldging after his morning meal this morning; this happen yesterday night too after his meal; the thing is I’m not sure if this is due to feeding and is not dangerous at all or if it is some serious health problems.
There are no avian professional vet near my house and I am seriously worried whether this could potentially be life threatening– if anyone might know if this is just normal or if this is something more serious please do tell!
(The buldge do go away after a few hours for the last night case; but I am still worried as if it’s a serious problem treating or knowing what to do immediately would be the best course of action)

 

[LaManuka]

Hello and welcome to the Forums! I'm sorry to say that I am not personally familiar with handraising/handfeeding baby birds. While you are waiting for other more knowledgeable members to respond, I offer you the following resource which was written by one of our very experienced breeders and hope you may be able to gain some useful information from it. The first part is a little heavy-going and may not necessarily apply to your situation, but the thread is packed with info that you may find valuable...

http://www.parrotforums.com/breeding-raising-parrots/74363-so-you-bought-unweaned-baby.html

We do have a number of active bird breeders among our membership so hopefully one of them will spot your thread and will be able to help you out. Once again, welcome aboard to you and your baby cockatiel!

 

[Theresiairene]

Btw here’s some picture of the buldging stomach

 

[Theresiairene]

As I’ve mentioned it came and goes— the case being it gets bigger every feeding and smaller after a few hours and some research I see say that it is fine meanwhile others state that it may be dangerous— hence I’m very paranoid.
I hope anyone that might know the cause or at least know whether this condition have ever happened and if it’s safe could really help!

 

[itzjbean]

Sounds like you are talking about the crop? It's like a pouch that catches what they eat to churn it up before digesting. It fills with every feeding and the bird digests it as the hours go on until it empties, then time to eat again!

This is normal and quite basic information as far as breeding goes. I'm afraid you need a bit more experience or else you'll continue to have anxiety about normal baby bird mannerisms like this but I encourage you to continue to ask questions and keep learning -- your baby birds survival depends on it.

 

[Theresiairene]

Nope, the crop I do know of, the this is the part below the crop which also buldges— and hence I am quite concerned about.. there are two pictures attached above which shows the stomach part below the crop which is buldging (

 

[Theresiairene]

Here are some other pictures if it helps– I don’t know how clear they is captured though, sorry my tiel is active and squirms around every time I would like to take a closer pic

 

[saxguy64]

I'm not a breeder sort, so take it for what it's worth. Looks to me like a nice full crop. Makes sense, as it would fill up from eating, then empty over the next few hours. Eat, and repeat...

 

[Theresiairene]

Thank you! Any inputs are honestly welcomed as I am literally a first timer in raising baby birds— I do hope someone with more closure could 100% tell me if this is perfectly safe and normal or if there is actually problems if this situation continued; either way I am thankful for all the replies and will still wait for people that might have went through the same situation as I do

 

[itzjbean]

Ok thanks for explaining and posting more pictures. It does look a little strange, I know they always have big plump rumps but this is a weird location to have a budge as it looks like its right above its legs but not in the back end where the rump is. A vet visit (even an exotics vet) would be highly beneficial for the bird. Do you have any normal vets in your area, or how far is your nearest avian vet?

 

[Theresiairene]

Yep I will go to the vet today in the evening to see what is up— there is no avian specialty vet around here that I do know of but I hope this vet could at least know and can help identifying what is the cause for this buldge

 

[Theresiairene]

Hello guys— I ended up asking a breeder and he didn’t know the problems exactly— but he is kind enough to ask me in detail my bird’s condition, food etc, and ask his nearby vet and bird expert associate; and apparently this is due to the fact that his digestive system is still weak as a baby; but giving any medicine or supplement will result in a weak digestive system throughout the bird’s growth; so he says that it is not a dangerous situation and tto just kerp feeding the birds the same formula; with time the digestive system will work better as the bird progressively eats more solid food.
i just want to reach out and says thank you to all the people that replied and tried to thank me!— I’m very grateful to you guys! Thank you so very much!