Saving a cockatiel

[ShreddedOakAviary]

It's been a crazy year and this month has been the worst... someone showed me a cockatiel who cannot eat because his lower beak is split in half. The poor guy was super thin and couldn't lift his head. Well, he was too close to death to try beak repair, so I agreed with the vet I would get him strong and healthy enough to be sedated while we shave the edges of the beak and repair it.... well I have been handfeeding him and he is due to go in for beak repair next week Wednesday. I will have to continue to handfeed him as it heals, so keep him in your prayers please... he deserves to be free from pain and we want to see him doing great someday soon.

 

[Aims]

You are such a lovely person to be looking after this little guy like this. He'll be in my thoughts.

 

[ann]

good luck with the little guy, hes in great hands

 

[Rio Mom]

He will be in my prayers!

 

[gemkitty24]

you are an amazing person saving an amazing life. Thank you for your kindness. I will pray for a speedy recovery

 

[henpecked]

Thanks for taking in a birdie in need. I just took on a DYH that has a split lower beak' After taking him to 3 AVs and consulting with several others, i found out lots i didn't know. In our case the beak would never heal, it won't grow back together. Pinning it together would be costly,temporary and really not improve his quality of life. In our case the bird is 15 yrs old and has had this issue for many years ,if not from birth. He has learned to eat and drink just fine. We do feed him a little differently than the other zons but he adapts just find. The plus side is he can't bite hard enough to break the skin,LOL. His name is Mumbles but he speaks clearly and loudly. Good luck, i would recommend talking with Dr Scott McDonald ,IMO one of the better "beak" vets, let me know if you want his contact info. PS we also have a tiel who has a protruding lower beak , we are doing physical therapy with little success but he has adapted well also. I'm sure your new charge will improve in your knowledgeable care. Good to see you back around, hope all is well.

 

[bkparrot]

Thank you for taking in a special needs bird. Prayers and positive energy for you both

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I just saw Scott two weeks ago. He has discussed beak repair with us before and we have done it successfully with big birds, the cockatiels is so small that I do worry a bit. Thanks, and just in case would you mind telling me a bit more about what and how you feed the amazon.

 

[henpecked]

With the zon we feed a larger pellet size, he "rolls" them around and nibbles them. The smaller pellets seem to give him more trouble and he drops/waste more. In general he gets larger pieces of most fresh stuff.He can "scrape" pieces off better than he can "chew" the smaller stuff. The water issues he has solved himself by quickly raising his head and not losing the water out his bottom beak. We also lowered the height of the perch on the water dish. Most of the other zons are watered with the bottle but he does better with the dish. It's amazing how they can adapt. I hope your tiel does well, we're pulling for her. Was it an injury or defect?

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

A horrible "rescue" just went out of business.... the owner was finally arrested... thank God (we've only been waiting for 4 years. The birds were abandoned because the humane society refused to deal with them so they were left in the hands of a homeless guy and another drig addict (long month).. One of them had this tiel and called my friend, that's all we know...

 

[henpecked]

Our poor zon lived his whole life with a family who never realized there was anything wrong with him. When i first met the bird i asked what happened to his lower mandible? What do you mean? they replied. They'd had him since weaning and didn't know any different. I can only assume birth defect or was injured at a very early age.

 

[kksdad]

Bless you for helping this little bird.

 

[MikeyTN]

You know I have a soft spot for Cockatiels so Thank you for saving the little bird's life!!!! I would of done the exact same thing.

Dr Scott Macdonald, I've heard wonderful stuffs about him and I've met him before. A lot of bird people loves him. I'm a little skeptical about him though as I've got my reasons to be as I don't completely agree with everything he does....For an instance when a breeder asks you to sex a bird and you don't think he should be put under to do so cause he might not make it. You should decline!!!! He did not decline and did it anyways and I had to watch that baby suffer and dying in my friend's arms who was watching him to try to keep him warm while the idiot breeder walked off and never check on him. I'll stop myself right there......