Mommy plucking baby cockatiel help!

[SillyBoy]

I have a female cockatiel that is fostering a 3week old baby cockatiel atm. She has hatched him from an egg (not her egg) and has been a wonderful mom to him....till now. I woke up yesterday to a bald headed baby

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All his feathers on his head behind his crest and down the back of his neck are gone...poor thing looks like a lil que ball. The thing is though, she will feed him on time but after she feeds him...she wants him out of her cage. That is when she plucks him till i remove him. When it is time to feed him again, she will scream till I put him back or she will go to his cage and open the door, go inside, feed him and leave.

I am at a total loss of what to do. I started handfeeding him today because I was scared he would starve to death but after I fed him, she snuck into his cage and fed him again.

Can I keep them separate during the day and place him with her at night?

Can I hand feed him and let her feed him as well?

I need advice cause when I don't let her feed him, she gets MAD! and attacks me till I do. (she is hand tame so she usually won't bite).

 

[merlinsmom13]

I know absolutely nothing about babys & handfeeding babys. But it seems to me that your female is telling you to take the baby out of the cage, I think I would listen. She could decide to kill it. Maybe someone w/handfeeding experience could shed some light on this behavior.

 

[MikeyTN]

That's an unusual behavior! Have you tried removing the baby into a separate room?

 

[SillyBoy]

I kept the baby in a separate cage during the day but let her feed him and she didn't pluck him but if she couldn't see him she would scream and pace like crazy. Seriously I thought she would have a nervous breakdown. So I think I might separate them during the day except when needing to be fed and then let them sleep together at night.

If anyone has any other ideas please feel free to share cause I am at a loss.

Also, if she is feeding him would it hurt if I fed him a little as well? Just to make sure he is getting enough to eat since they are separated during the day except for when she wants to feed him?

 

[Conurekidd]

This is an extreamlly common situation with cockatiels. It happened to me but thankgod I planned pulling for feeding anyways. It's exactly what Merlin stated. She wants him gone. She's ready for another clutch. I don't know the story of your birds so I'll state the common reason. You tell me if I'm wrong.

Usally it's due to not allowing the parents to wean there first clutch on there own. That's important. Because now if you do pull the babies for feeding the very first clutch ever then that's what they'll expect the weaning time is. Also time for more eggs.= more babies. Also bad parenting. Tiels make great parents but I hear l the time about dead babies that starved to death or even plucked. My first attempt breeding was with a fresh stock and under 2 years. It was there first time lol. I pulled a 2 weeks and never again could I allow them to feed past it. So now I allow a youngsters first clutch to wean fully with mom and pops. Its a Phycolodgical thing. No problems if your prepared to feed out her baby hood.

 

[MikeyTN]

This is an extreamlly common situation with cockatiels. It happened to me but thankgod I planned pulling for feeding anyways. It's exactly what Merlin stated. She wants him gone. She's ready for another clutch. I don't know the story of your birds so I'll state the common reason. You tell me if I'm wrong.

Usally it's due to not allowing the parents to wean there first clutch on there own. That's important. Because now if you do pull the babies for feeding the very first clutch ever then that's what they'll expect the weaning time is. Also time for more eggs.= more babies. Also bad parenting. Tiels make great parents but I hear l the time about dead babies that starved to death or even plucked. My first attempt breeding was with a fresh stock and under 2 years. It was there first time lol. I pulled a 2 weeks and never again could I allow them to feed past it. So now I allow a youngsters first clutch to wean fully with mom and pops. Its a Phycolodgical thing. No problems if your prepared to feed out her baby hood.

It makes sense, but seriously I never had this type of problem ever. Another thing the poster did say that she is fostering the baby, it's not one of her own.

To the poster, IF you don't mind feeding the rest of the way, you might as well remove the baby into a different room and feed on your own without letting the female doing any feeding.

 

[SillyBoy]

I honestly don't know if this is her first baby she ever raised or even how old she is. My dad found her on a wall outside his work, just sitting there eating grass seed, last august. He knew she was once a pet cause she came right over to him and hoped on his hand, and started preening his beard LOL. We advertised but no one claimed her so we kept her. (We didn't even know she was female till she layed her first egg 2mo. ago) (she is not albino but she is all white with some grey short feathers though out her body.)

The baby she is raising is our other tiels baby. They are a mated pair but bad parents and break their eggs shortly after being layed. Billy's eggs were infertile so we gave her one of the mated pairs egg that we saved from them breaking.

I don't mind hand feeding the baby at all. He is actually starting to eat seed and mullet on his own at 24days old.