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.

Handfeeding cockatiels

Things to remember

When to Pullout

If you have a choice, chicks should be pulled out at 2 weeks of age. During this period the chick should be stronger, its eyes open, it would be easier to feed, domesticate and its immune system more complete.
Pulling out a chick younger than 2 weeks old is possible though not recommended. Uno, our first handfed bird was pulled out from the nest when he was 2 days old, he is a sour crop survivor. During this period until the second week you have to feed it once every two hours constantly with a watery solution of your handfeed mix with a rubber tube and syringe.

Brooding materials and sterilization

Others use an enclosed small glass aquarium, bottom lined with wood shavings then covered with newspaper. What works best for me though is a fruit basket more like of a wicker nest. bottom covered with newspaper and another layer of crumpled paper. This makes it easier(and cheaper) for me to clean up. the crumpled paper had to be replaced when soiled before the next feeding time.

Temperature Control

The younger the chick's age the more important this is. Young chicks don't have enough feathers to regulate heat properly, they still depend on their parents for their heat source, especially in colder places. If purchasing a heater is easy in your location, lucky you. The most commonly used improvisation though is the use of a lamplight. The distance of the bulb from the brooders' floor can be adjusted to properly meet the desired temperature which should be as warm(not hot) as a humans' breadth.

Handfeeding formula/mix

There are lots of available hand feeding formulas in the market. In our locale though, it is not that easily available. And yes there are proven options if you have a similar situation as mine. Baby foods specifically those which are made of fruits, cereals and the like are possible and sometimes, specially at chicks a week old or younger, safer. I purchased a handfeeding formula that is really good except that it is still grainy (not powdery like baby's food which is finer) and I'm not sure if my formula is not watery enough, choked one of my 4 day old chicks to death. Since then I only use Cerelac (Fruits and soya) for week old or younger chicks. Upon reaching the first week though, it is better to use the more balanced specifically formulated handfeeding solutions. You can notice that they grow much faster and fatter.

Preparing chick for handfeeding

Handfeeding Schedule

Wing clipping

I will make a stand on this as others try to play safe in the middle others oppose it, but one can say that when one is handfeeding chicks, this is almost a necessity.

Sour Crop on Handfed Chicks

This is said to be typically common on cockatiel chicks. One of the common culprits is cold food. This induces the fungi Candida to grow which is one its main causes, it can also be caused by bacterial growth. It can also be due to impaction, solid foods blocking the passage, though it should be a rare cause for handfed chicks since they are fed plain handfeeding formulas. This is a RED ALERT, time is definitely against you, our first handfed chick Uno survived it.