I have some baby cockatiels! Have some questions

[GreenAntics]

Hello! You can call me lucas or green when referring to me. I have two cockatiels right now. One is named ariel (she is white and grey) And another name patience (black and white and some yellow around the neck). I bought patience from a bad breeder. I was promised the bird was a girl. But it turned out not to be. I also used to have a bird named max, She was my best friend. She passed away from a tumor at only seven years old. It still upsets me when i think about her.

Anyway. My birds are allowed to free roam 24/7 because we have the tools to clean up after them. Ariel laid eggs before but they never hatched. I Have a large box in my bedroom in the top of my closet. One day a few weeks ago I went into my bedroom and my male bird flew on my like normal. But when I went into the closet he bit me. And that's when I knew she had eggs or was making the nest.

17 day's ago I went into the bedroom and herd some strange chriping and I knew she had baby's. I went to the petstore imediatly and bought some bedding for the bottom of the box (recycled paper kind) and two diffrent types of baby bird formula for when I had to feed them. 1. KAYTEE exact Hand feeding formula. 2. LAFEBER'S instant nutri-start baby bird formula. and a syringe to hand feed them, and some other stuff (cuddlebone +digestive care gravel)

Two days after hearing the one bird chirp ariel (the mother) left the box to eat. I went in and all four egg's had hatched! I took them all out and changed the bedding. anyway its been two weeks since then. All four babys are alive. I changed the bedding yesterday, and will be changing it again tomorrow morning. I just want some help and need to know if i should hand feed them or leave them to the mother. and I DO have a space heater in the bedroom to keep them warm. But I want to know if I should remove them and feed them myself, or what should i be doing. I will show you recent pictures, and then a picture of them in the box.

So I need to know what I should do, Remove them? or leave them to the mother for a few more weeks. and do they look like they are in good health? And i have a thermometer to take the temperature of the formula (104-106)
And I want to go out and get a birdie medicine bag for them in case something happens. I need to know what to get for it. I do have a vet near by with a bird specialist. Sorry for the long thread. I also don't know how to insert pictures. So I will just put the links. <3

The first picture is of the birds yesterday on a mat well I changed the bedding. The second picture is my best friend maxy the day before we had to let her go from a tumor. I love her and wish I could have done something. The third picture is of them in the box so you can see the size of the box (picture is older) birdy's - Imgur (sorry the one bird is blurry, i will take better pictures tomorrow and any that you want to see, just ask)

Just to let you know, I'm not going to be selling or getting rid of any of the babies. I'm keeping them all and making a huge homemade cage with wood and mesh cage wire. just need to find one that is ok for birds.


-Lucas

 

[JerseyWendy]

Welcome to the forum, Lucas.

Looking at the photos, mama cockatiel seems to be doing an exceptional job with her babies. I'd leave them in the box and let Mama do the rearing - they all look pretty good to me.

 

[GreenAntics]

Any information would help. please! And thank you JerseyWendy! I'm glad. Ok, I will leave the babies for mama to take care of for two more weeks.

 

[Colorguarder08]

Welcome to the forum Lucas. First off I was extremely disappointed to learn the males name wasn't Eric because everytime I hear the name Ariel (or in this cage read it) I think of the little mermaid. It's an unbreakable connection. Second I don't have a whole lot of experience with baby cockatiels the closest I have is 8 week old Riley(Who is having fun playing with my sweatshirt as I type this and biting my lip just to be a butt) and my first cockatiel I had when I was 11 named Angel who came to me WAY to young (was just starting to get his pin feathers in, so for the first month or so I had a mostly bald bird) but I didn't know better. However from what I understand you can let the parents raise them and as long as they are handled early and often they can still make wonderful pets. What I do know though is that having 6 cockatiels greatly increases the chance of breeding and especially inbred babies which is unhealthy. So it might be a good idea if you remove any "nesting" materials after the babys wean. Also ask your vet what would be to put in the medicine bag.

 

[Allee]

Hello Lucas! Oh My Goodness, those babies are precious. I would let their mommy care for them, as Wendy said, looks like their Mom is doing a great job. If you decide to hand feed them, please do a lot of research, it can be a dangerous task, especially if you've never done it.

Sorry to hear about the loss of Max. Good luck with the babies, please keep us posted.

 

[sonja]

I agree that you need to prevent any more babies. Inbred babies will just lead to problems.

 

[GreenAntics]

Okay lady's. Thank's for the info. And yes, I will not be having any more babies, I'm going to prevent it from now on. Does that mean i have to separate all the babies when they grow up instead of letting them stay together in a huge cage for the rest of their lifes. Is there another way to stop them from having babies. I don't want to have anymore. 6 birds is enough, Because in a few months i will be getting a cockatoo (at christmas) so that will be seven loud birds And yea, The males name is the name the breeder's gave it because he would wait for the other birds to eat then he would eat so they called him patience! And I just kept it.

and I will keep you all updated. I will be getting more pictures tomorrow when i change their bedding (I change it every two days so they stay healthy) And I need to find a box, Because i'm not sure if that one is big enough, they might outgrow it or be able to get out of it and fall 8 feet!


-Lucas

 

[MrsKay]

Hello Green, I think your birds names a just fine the way they are. What cute little babies. It sounds like your flock will be pretty happy together

 

[Colorguarder08]

You can keep them together if you have a huge cage and don't give them any boxes or anything they can perceive as nesting materials. And limit their access to dark "safe" corners.

 

[GreenAntics]

Thanks guys! Right now i'm just wondering what color they are going to turn out to be. the parents are diffrent colors. the mom is white and the dad is black with yellow neck/orange ears and some grey on the wings. I will be so upset if any of them don't make it. That's why I wanted to feed them myself to make sure they get the food they need. Because moma might not be able to feed them all.

 

[Colorguarder08]

4 is actually a rather small clutch I've heard of clutches being up to 7 or 8 its like dogs they RARELY have more babies than they can feed just make sure the mama bird is eating plenty and has a good diet and she will do fine. Can you add pics of the male as from what I have read if cockatiels have black its an indicator of poor diet and/or diease it might be a good idea to take him to the vet just to be safe. They can turn out to be pretty much any color it would help you more to know that the parents parents looked like. Riley came from a clutch of 5 one was a normal grey, one pied, one lutino, one fallow (all white with red eyes) and then of course Riley a white faced grey.

 

[MikeyTN]

You would really need to separate the parents if you don't intend on having anymore babies cause that's what they're going to do. I really don't suggest in letting them free roam cause your just asking for trouble. They'll find ways to build their nest to have chicks, even in your closet, drawers, etc. Plus they're wood chewers, pooping all over isn't best for your health either, I highly doubt you have enough time to clean up all their poopy mess as they poop a lot!

Have you read about Cockatoos??? Since you said your getting one.....They're not the type of birds for most to have, definitely do NOT let a Cockatoo free roam.....

 

[GreenAntics]

The parents are a whiteface cockatiel and a grey male Different Types This site shows them, just scroll down. And when i say i let them free roam they go on the cage or our shoulders or one other spot all of the time. Its just the past few weeks they had been going in my closet and chewing paper and stuff and i did not mind, until i went in there and paitence (my male bird) bit me. so I knew they had eggs. And I have a special machine that cleans up all the poop. I clean all of it up every 3 day's. I am going to be building a large cage for them and start to have them go in the cage. And I don't want to separate them. They have been together so long. I will try something else to stop them from breeding. But if I have to separate them I will. And yes I have read about cockatoo's. I bought a book from the store about them and if there is something I dont like I wont get one. I love birds so much, And I have wanted something bigger then a cockatiel for a long time. I have owned birds for my whole life.

 

[Colorguarder08]

The babies will most likely be normal greys. you may get one with a white face but most likely not as I believe it is a recessive gene. Also if your male looks like the one in the picture it's not black it's very dark grey which is significant in that as I said before black feathers are a sign of diease. Also since you did just add 4 more tiels to your flock I think it would be better to hold off on the too for a little while as that way you can put your time into taming the 4 new additions and then when you are ready focus on taming the too if it needs it.

 

[GreenAntics]

Ok, Thank you! If I do decide to get the too I will be waiting until next year at the soonest.

-lucas

 

[GreenAntics]

posting new pictures now, let me know how they look and if they look healthy. one of them likes me and comes to me to snuggle <3 pictures incoming soon

 

[GreenAntics]

Here are the pictures of my babys! I took some pictures well changing the nest box bedding! when should i start feeding them? they are just over 3 weeks now, some more some less. So cute!!!

the one I was holding really likes me! the rest are scaredy cat's though! haha! <3

 

[GreenAntics]

I wonder which ones are male and which are females. i hope to have atleast two of them to be females. i like females better they are sweeter and more snugglyer. i cant wait for them to grow up <3

 

[Colorguarder08]

While it's still too early to tell I'd say there's a good chance two are males and the other two are females. I'm just going by the coloration of the face feathers. I would reccommend letting the parents feed them but you should definately handle ALL of them (not just the one that likes you) often so they are all tame.

 

[GreenAntics]

the father does not feed them i dont think. and what if the mother cant feed them all and one starves, shouldn't i feed them now