Is my cockatiel healthy

[Emmalilly33]

Hey everyone!! So long story short. My cockatiel had two babies. She never fed the one so I hand fed it for two weeks but unfortunately it passed (I think it was sick from the start). The second baby seems to be doing well! He’s three weeks old and he seemed small from the start but he’s been growing very fast now! The parents only seem to feed him starting around 5 pm so I feed him at 7am and 12 pm to assist feed. Ive had birds for years, but have only handfed one other time. I really want this little one to make it so can someone please tell me if he looks healthy? I will post pictures below! (His crop is not full because he was fed a couple of hours ago). I’m worried he’s a little dehydrated. Thanks so much in advance!

 

[Laurasea]

He's cute! I've got no advise. But I do hope he is healthy, and you get good help from others!

 

[OutlawedSpirit]

He looks good to me. In my experience, and I've dealt with quite a few tiel babies both healthy and babies rejected by their parents and not in the best shape, he looks to be in pretty good shape. Babies that are dehydrated tend to take on a reddish hue that your baby doesn't seem to have, that I can see in the pictures anyway. He looks nice and pink. If you're going based on the crop, it can be pretty typical in parent raised babies for quite a bit of seed and "clumps" to remain visible after the liquid seems to be all absorbed. That's normal. As long as baby is emptying completely at least once a day, I'd say he's at least on his way to growing like he should.

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[Emmalilly33]

Thanks so much for the response! There is always some seed visible throughout the day in the crop so you saying that makes me feel a lot better. The crop always empties in the night and then I feed him in the morning. The reason I wondered if he was dehydrated is because I noticed the intestine inside the stomach is a little darker than usual. I posted a picture of it. Does that look normal?

 

[texsize]

My only thought on your baby is he should have more feathers at 3 weeks of age.

My memory is not the best so I could be wrong.

Be sure to have an accurate gram scale and weight him every morning to monitor his growth.