Choosing a Healthy Cockatiel

So you want to buy your first cockatiel, here is a guide.

Plumage. The plumage should have some sheen on them, overly fluffed-up birds indicates that it is probably ill, this may be common though during cold weather. The plumage should be smooth and arranged. Falling feathers may be a sign of molting, this is a extremely stressful stage to any bird and their immune system is weak during this period.

Vent. The feathers on the vent area should be devoid of dirt, it is an indication that the bird is suffering from diarrhea or sits on the floor too often.

Posture. A healthy cockatiel will have an alert posture, drooping heads and arched backs are indicators of health problems.

Eyes and skin. Eyes should be wide, full circle and alert, avoid watery or half closed, glassy eyes. Check exposed skins to avoid warts, scaling, boils and the like. These maybe an indication of mites and other bacterial or fungal infections.

Behavior. A healthy cockatiel is alert and inquisitive, the male sings when in the pink of health. Though cockatiels would rather sit and stare, it is agile when in motion, flight is also a good indicator.If you prefer a more domesticated bird, try to hand over a sunflower seed and see if its reaction.

Symmetry. Visually divide the bird vertically in halfand compare one side from the other, the better the similarities of the left to the right side, or vice versa, the better. The cockatiel should walk with complete balance, obese and ill birds would lumber about.

Age. Ask about the age of your cockatiel, purchase a bird not less than three months old. They are able to breed at the age of six(6) months but it is suggested to pair them at one(1) year of age. Cockatiels' average life span is 15-20 years.

Inspect the neighbors, aviary. Observe all the birds in the aviary. A visually healthy bird may show symptoms of illness days after they are broght home due to illness acquired from sick cage mates. Most bacterial diseases are air born so check the whole flock.

Cockatiel Care - Sour Crop on Chicks

Sour crop is quite common to cockatiel chicks, and is one of the main casuses of death to handfed cockatiel chicks. The crop isa a bird's food storage, it provides them with constant supply of energy for long flights. Sour crop is when the contents of the crop is not able to push through the digestive system and gets stuck in the crop. There may be many causes of sour crop; bacterial, yeast infection and impaction being the most common.

Impaction can be caused by irregular sized foods causing blockage in the crop. Handfed chicks rarely encounter this. It still occurs on at timeswhen the chicks ingested its nesting material. Breeders usually try the following:

- Feed a more diluted formula followed by a light crop massage
- Provide mineral oil in the food to loosen the contents and slowly massage the crop
- Saline solution to the bird and massage.

The following procedures must be done by your vet.

- Flushing the crop. A last resort, involves extracting the contents of the crop forcibly in to the mouth of the chick. Survival rate is not guaranteed, the smaller the chick, the riskier the attempt.

- Operation. cutting up the outer skin in to the crop, emptying it and sewing them back on. Depending on the size and age of the chick this should absolutely be done by your veterinarian.

Sour crop due to bacterial infection can be easily cured by administering antibiotics but can backfire to the chicks health, antibiotics kills all the bacteria in its apth, including the good ones, probiotics are applied after medication to replenish the good bacteria. Laboratory culture is used to determine sour crop due to bacterial infection. Fungi will not react on rash antibiotic treatment causing only the good bacteria to be eradicated. Unless in an emergency situation, antibiotics should be administered only by your veterinarian.

Fungus is the most common cause of sour crop in handfed chicks, the candida sp. strain is a fast growing fungus that developes a clay-like indigestible ball in the crop. It grows each feeding and your best and probably only option is to cure it through medication. feeding Nystatin ( brand name mycostatine)solution will immediately eliminate the clay ball.

Chicks fed by their parents have lesser risk of acquiring sour crop. Prevention is still the best cure.

Charcoal - Cockatiel First Aid - Cure Against Toxins

One of the most frustrating thing a cockatiel owner might encounter is an ill bird. Diagnosis is extremely difficult as symptoms are at best hidden by the bird instinctively. Administering unnecessary medication might be even more detrimental to their health.

In cases of poisoning, ingestion of toxic chemicals, plants and the like, there is one safe and natural remedy that is a miracle cure, immediately available and extremely cheap. Charcoal. This organic fuel has long been used by mankind as fuel in heating and cooking. It is also used to aid in various ailments, most commonly stomach discomforts. So powerful it can clean up cyanide poisoning as long as the chemical is still in the digestive tract. For medicinal and cleansing purposes such as water filtration, a more powerful form of charcoal is created, dubbed as "activated" charcoal or carbon. It is more efficient but any household charcoal will do, considering its a first aid solution.

Always remember that charcoal is a cure for chemical poisoning and other toxins, e.g. those which some plants produce. Ailments caused by viruses and bacteria will not have any improvement upon charcoal consumption.

The procedure is quite simple, crush the charcoal and serve it mixed with a favorite dry dish like eggfood. Also leave a solid piece inside the cage as cockatiels have a habit of nibbling through it like Cuttlebone.

Next step. Contact your veterinarian.

Charcoal indeed is a life saver, it can save your pet in emergency situations and it can also be supplied in their daily diet as it is known to have no side effect to the birds' health. It is suggested to always leave a piece of charcoal for them to nibble on.

This article is made after an in-depth research that goes beyond cockatiel sites who have only one similar solution, 'bring the bird to the vet' which can be miles or days away to some frustrated pet lovers. We cannot argue with that, but in emergency situations like poisoning, your vet is not in the house, your charcoal is.

Cockatiel Egg Fostering Basics

Abandonment of the clutch, death of a parent or both and other emergency situations will push you to save the eggs and fostering is a luxury not all of us have. But if you are one of the lucky few, read on.

You have two options to save the brood. One is to incubate them artificially then hand feed, a rewarding but expensive and sometimes heart breaking experience as chicks which are hand fed from day one are prone to most diseases, lacking the immunity usually provided by the parents.

your next option is fostering. Fostering has been used to allow some species escape extinction. Society Finches are famous foster parents , when they see a clutch, the whole "society" will usually adopt and raise them. The world of the cockatiels aren't as lucky as the finches though, fostering is only possible to those who, at the same period, are also nesting.

So option one. Foster the abandoned clutch to another nesting pair of cockatiels. Make sure the difference in age between the original clutch and the one to be fostered is no more than three(3) days old. This is to avoid any great disparity in size of the chicks. The larger ones will out compete the late comers in food and when the difference is too big the parents will most likely shift to survival mode and sacrifice the smaller clutch.

Option number two. Foster the eggs to another close, similar sized parrot specie, most commonly the Budgerigar. Same as rule number one, observe the disparity in the age of the eggs. Remember that the count starts when the incubation starts. The cockatiel and the budgerigar has the same average period of incubation, eighteen to twenty one(18-21) days.

Option three. Fostering under the African lovebirds. They are so popular and although being smaller, they are excellent foster parents. Take note though that the chicks will be larger than their foster parents in two weeks so be ready to proceed with hand feeding after this period. They will be easier to hand raise at this stage with less feeding interval and better immune system.

Fostering under species of different sized parrots such as the parakeet; No breeder reported of any luck so better proceed with hand feeding.

Fostering will save you lots of time, money and most importantly, your clutch.

Cockatiel Mutation: PIED

The pied cockatiel has an irregular color pattern in comparison to the normal gray. The ratio and distribution of the colors defines if it is a Light pied, Heavy Pied or Clear pied.

Light Pied. The dark and gray hues dominate the yellow shades in the body. A gray cockatiel with some white markings at the back of the forehead is considered a "light pied".

Heavy Pied. This is a more favored mutation since the yellow color is proportionally more distributed than the gray, a specific balance of pattern is what breeders usually look for. The yellow will be replaced by white plumage if the bird is a white face.

Clear Pied. The absence of all the gray colors doesn't necessarily mean the bird is a lutino. A pied bird with no gray or dark color is called a clear pied. Dark eyes will reveal this phenomenon unlike the lutino which has red or pink. The entire bird will also be white if it is a whiteface mutation.

The Pied mutation is a recessive gene, if bred with a pure normal gray will produce one hundred percent (100%) normal gray chicks.

Red, White, Black and Yellow Millet

Which one to feed your bird? Which is more nutritious? Can they be mixed together? If then on what ratio. These questions lingered long on my mind as I am in the continous quest to find the best seedmix diet for my birds and here is what I uncovered: Millets contain at least 11% protein in weight, a vital ingredient in feather prodution as feathers are mostly protein in the form of keratin. Other nutrients include various types of vitamin B, folic acid and carbohydrates. Having no gluten, millets are known to have no allergic effect. Millet, aside from the canary seed should comprise at least 30% of your seedmix. You go to a super birdstore and suddenly found a variety of colors, with a price difference t almost 50%, white, also known as "pearl" being teh cheapest.
The fact is, laboratory nutrient tests on the millet is the same to all its colored varieties, thus, it oil boils down to choice. Your birds' choice.
I have honestly given them all those four types in one mix and one color stands out: The black millet. Stands out in the sense that it is the only think left in the plate, as much as possible, cockatiels or finches, they dont want to do anything with it unless starvation moves in. Given its relatively high price, my birds are giving me a great favor. The others are consumed fairly but not until the white "pearls" have pretty much ran out.
So there you have it: Winner of the royal rumble. Nutritious, cheap, readily available and very much popular to your cockatiels, the white aka "pearl" millet.

Visually Sexing Your Cockatiel

Visually Sexing Your Cockatiel is possible to most mutations except two, the Whiteface Lutino aka "Albino" and the Pied. These two radically eliminates the color markings to identify the female (albino) or mixes up all the color pattern (Pied) to provide proper identification.
Visually sexing your cockatiel is reliable after the completion of the first molt, which takes about 6-8 months of age. Before the first molt all of them look like girls.
The cock will have a bright yellow face mask with prominent cheek patches (except the whiteface). The hen will have a yellow face but of little surface area with the body color(usually gray) interloping parts of it including the cheek patch making it look duller than the male.

Barrings remain underneath the tail of the hen while they are absent after the first molt of the male.

Like the barrings, female cockatiels retain their spots under their wing where they are shed off by the male during maturity.

These spots and barrings are present even in the lutino. A bright light source will be necessary to visually identify the yellow/white barrings.

The Pearl's scalloped design while slowly shed off by the male during its first year while it will remain prominent in the female.

Combine these visual tips with your cockatiel's behavior and you have a relatively high chance of identifying the sexual orientation of your cockatiel.

Egg Binding, A Breeder's Approach

Egg Binding is a serious problem attributed to the inability of a bird to lay or expel its egg/s from its body.
It is observed that smaller birds including cockatiels are more susceptible to egg binding.
The usual cause of such inability is an abnormality in the egg's structure. Either soft shelled or abnormally larger in size, the stuck egg may kill your bird within seconds.
Lovely, my first cockatiel to succumb to egg binding, was all playful and active minutes before egg binding struck and killed her immediately.
The following are major causes of egg binding:

Lack of Calcium. Eggs are made of calcium. Being depleted of this element will cause hens to produce soft shelled eggs that are hard to expel. This happens when there is little or no calcium source within their diet, and even if there is a source, too many clutches laid within a small period of time will be too much for any small bird.

Overbreeding. More than two clutches a year places your bird at a high risk to encounter egg binding. Calcium and nutrient intake will not be able to catch up with the fast depletion of these nutrients due to excessive egg production.

Lack of Essential vitamins. Producing and laying eggs are stressful activities and Calcium is but a small portion of what a hen needs. Lack of other vitamins will lead to abnormally shaped egg that the cloaca is not designed to handle.

Age. A young bird, in the case of a cockatiel, below a year old, have a higher risk of egg binding due to the underdeveloped reproductive systems.

Prevention.

Apparently, given the list of causes, a responsible breeder can take steps to minimize it. Cuttlebone is the best and most trusted calcium source as it is natural, it also supplies necessary amount of iodine and most importantly, your cockatiels are more than willing to take them. They should always be available even when not breeding. Two or three times a week, soluble vitamins can be added to their water source. It is said that adding drops of vegetable oil to their seed dish can lessen the risk dramatically. For the overzealous breeders, remove the nest box after the second clutch to discourage further breeding until the next season.

Cure

Unfortunately, your veterinary is the only possible cure for your bird. Operation may be necessary and you don't have the tools for it nor the knowledge. The bird may be injected with calcium for cloacal contraction helping to expel the egg. With all these possible solutions the risk of losing your bird is still very high.

Always remember that breeding and egg laying is always an emergency situation. Do your best to stop egg binding before it happens.

Mutations: The "Albino"

The Albino Cockatiel is a misnomer, it doesn't exist. Rather, it is a combination of two mutations, the lutino and the whiteface. The combination resulted in a bird with no dark/gray plumage and no cheekpatch, creating the "albino" cockatiel. Due to this mix of two mutations, the albino cockatiel is priced above the normal or average mutation. The whiteface removes all the white in the bird, the lutino mutation removes all of the gray/black coloration, you end up with a white bird. The genetically correct name for it would be a "Whiteface lutino". The Whiteface Lutino or "Albino" cannot be visually sexed.

Mutations: The Silver Cockatiel

The Silver Cockatiel is a normal gray in dilute form. This mutation has distinct red eyes, a pink beak and pink feet. Male Silvers commonly have a yellow face and orange cheek patches after its first molt. Female Silvers will retain most of the patterns and features of a gray except that it is diluted presenting a silver color.

That is for the general description, a more in depth explanation needs more of your attention.

There are two known types of 'silver' cockatiels. This type of mutation can be acquired from one parent or both, making the single and double factor types. There is also a dominant silver and a recessive silver. The recessive mutation displays a light silvery color, they have red eyes like that of lutinos.

The double factors have lighter plumage than the single factor.

A dark gray cap on a silver bird shows that it is a dominant silver, the only prominent visual difference to a recessive silver aside from the fact that all dominant silvers have dark eyes.

Sexing the silver cockatiel is same as the normal, look for markings under the wing and tail, spots and barring represents a female on mature species.

SunFATTER seeds

You place a mixture of seeds in a bowl, millet, canary seeds, rape, oat groat and sunflower seeds. The next minute the sunflower seeds are chowed down like there is no tomorrow while the others (except the oat groat)are ignored until the next hungry season. The sunflower seeds are technically labeled as the "Junk Food" of the bird world, the preference of most birds to this seed has triggered an obesity malady in the species. To set the record straight it is unfair to label it as junk as it is known that oil(which is mostly what it is made of) is a major necessity in a bird's diet(even in yours). The key element is "moderation". The feathers need oil for their health, utilization and water proofing. Too much of it though will fatten your bird which will trigger a lot of other internal problems in due time. So the bottom line is, use sunflower seeds as a treat. Do not mix it up in your daily servings, give it two or three times a weeks while regulating the obesity of your pets. Sunflower seeds have large amounts of vitamin E that is essential in breeding and nurturing birds, so you may double your serving during these periods.

Myths and Legends of Chick Mortality

There have been undocumented reports, agreements between experienced breeders that were never put to the test, never written in paper and to most of these breeders they really wished they never will be.
Cockatiels are relatively easy to breed. When a good pair starts breeding, one might have to intervene or they may never stop laying to the detriment of the hen's health. Per clutch you may find about four to seven or eight eggs but some might get discarded or destroyed before hatching or abandoned by the parents leaving only one or two to survive. Breeders believe this is a psychological instinctive trigger built in to the parent's system to provide better surviving results for the remaining chicks.
Now what are the triggers.

Food and Water

This is the most important trigger. Never let the dishes empty, there should always be an EXCESS of food. Like summer season in the wild, food is abundunt as seeds and fruits produces more than enough to support a big family. The parents upon seeing this will continue to provide for the chicks without the need to manage each meal. Once the parents notice that the food is scarce, (though you know you will provide it if need be) they will abandon the weakest, usually the smallest of the chicks and increase the survival rate of its siblings by reserving the meager available food for them.

Temperature and Humidity

Imitating the summer season would be the best approach, thus an indoor cage where temperature can be managed is a more appropriate location. Dampness of the nest box is a major factor for complete abandonment of the clutch. Provide proper cover from drafts, sudden temperature changes and rain if the cage is outdoors.


Pests/Predators

Make sure no pests like mites, ants and the like will enter the nestbox, precautionary steps should be taken before breeding, taking into account the sanitary steps for your nest site. If infested during the nesting process there is no other choice but to remove the parents temporarily, pull out the eggs/chicks and sanitize the site before returning them together.

Predators are common to an outdoor setup, make sure your perimeter is secure from cats, snakes etc. The railings of your cage can be more secure by doubling it up with chicken wires. Indoor setup is not devoid of predators. Inside, YOU are the predator. Do not startle the nesting family or it may destroy the clutch or abandon them completely. Cockatiels though are known to be one of the most tolerant pet birds during its breeding season just make sure you make slow, expected movements. When checking the nestbox it is customary to "knock" three times to let them know you are coming, this simple respectful act can save you lots of cheeky lives.