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.
Showing posts with label care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label care. Show all posts
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Nymphicus Hollandicus
KINGDOM : ANIMALIA
PHYLUM : CHORDATA
CLASS : AVES
ORDER : PSITTACIFORMES
FAMILY : CACATUIDAE
SUBFAMILY: CALYPTORHYNCHINAE
GENUS : NYMPHICUS
SPECIES : NYMPHICUS HOLLANDICUS
Cockatiels are Parrots under the Cockatoo family, the smallest of these crested kind.
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