New bird sitting at bottom of cage

[nanachi]

Hi all!
One day ago I bought a cockatiel baby, presumed to be around 2.5 months old. She seems to be doing ok so far. We've handled her and she's pretty skinny though still a bit skittish. Everything seemed to be ok until tonight.

I have the bird staying in a smaller, temporary cage. Eventually, we plan on moving her in with our older cockatiel. As I was about to cover the cage for the night I realized she was sitting on the bottom of her cage, fluffed up and balancing on one foot. I'm not sure if she's feeling a bit sick, or if she's still not used to perching. The breeder we bought her from had her in a glass tank with her hatch mates, no perches, just toys to stand on like ladders and some kind of wood chip material on the floor. She seems keen to play and is very alert when we have her out. It was just at night that I noticed this.

Should I schedule an emergency vet visit tomorrow? I don't want to lose this baby, but I also don't want to be overly worried. I'm also worried about my older bird and hoping this sickness doesn't come to him.

 

[noodles123]

yes, yes, yes! Make sure it is an avian vet if at all possible! *it could be that perches are too wide but I would not bank on that, as you have her in a high stress situation and she is very young and vulnerable..and skinny...they is in emergency*


I am sorry you are going through this.


Also- know that any new bird should be in a totally separate room for a bare minimum of 45 days with extreme caution about clothing/hair contamination etc via handling by humans.
You know that your 2 birds could mate or kill each other, right?

 

[HeatherG]

Hi all!
One day ago I bought a cockatiel baby, presumed to be around 2.5 months old. She seems to be doing ok so far. We've handled her and she's pretty skinny though still a bit skittish. Everything seemed to be ok until tonight.

I have the bird staying in a smaller, temporary cage. Eventually, we plan on moving her in with our older cockatiel. As I was about to cover the cage for the night I realized she was sitting on the bottom of her cage, fluffed up and balancing on one foot. I'm not sure if she's feeling a bit sick, or if she's still not used to perching. The breeder we bought her from had her in a glass tank with her hatch mates, no perches, just toys to stand on like ladders and some kind of wood chip material on the floor. She seems keen to play and is very alert when we have her out. It was just at night that I noticed this.

Should I schedule an emergency vet visit tomorrow? I don't want to lose this baby, but I also don't want to be overly worried. I'm also worried about my older bird and hoping this sickness doesn't come to him.

This baby bird may simply be familiar with sitting on the bottom of the nest box to sleep, as opposed to perching like a Big Bird (adult). I see from your post that Baby Cockatiel Girl was living in a tank with her clutch mates, with no perches. She’s used to sleeping on the floor.
if she’s acting fine, alert, active, eating, drinking, chirping, pooping; she may well be just fine and needs to get confidence and skills for perching like a grownup.
p.s. I hear cockatiels can have nightmares or night frights. You might want to give her a nightlight.