My neice found a cockatiel in the mountains. She said she held her arm out and it came to her. Lord only knows where it came from because she is from a very rural area. She went to the store and bought seeds for it but she said that it only picks out certain ones and eats them. I need suggestions on what to feed it also a site/book recommendation of a good book, that shows how to clip its wings, trim nails, beak,so many questions ?? Where she is from they do not have pet stores or even vets in her town.

bushg

rderden....wait for mrs.sitting duck to come along she usually has the answers to all of our bird problems. If you don't hear from her today...check back in another time.

mrssittingduck

their are many reasons why the bird wont use cuttle or mineral , the main one been they dont like it or they dont know what it is ,
if your birds beak was only cut a week ago and is now over grown again then this suggests that their is a problem with the bird ,
take him to the vets and get him checked out and clipped properly, the vet will know how far back and at what angle to take it too, this may slow down the growth rate and if the same happens again then the vet may want to run a bloodtest or advise you of what the problem may be , unfortunatly if it is a problem then the beak will still need regular trimming

you may also want to add fruit tree branches or willow branches into his cage, the birds love to chew at these, and may also help control the beak, its not a cuttle fish or mineral block but it may help, all my birds including cockatiels love branches, it mAY TAKE THEM A WHILe to get the jist of what to do with it but they will figure it out

good luck with him or her and please let us know how he gets on
katie

rderden

Thanks mrssittingduck for responding. The reason I am concerned is because he has always had a cuttle bone and/or mineral block in his cage and I have just noticed within the last couple of months that he's not using it like he use to. I don't have any fruit tree or willow branches, I only have pecan trees. Would that work? Other than the problem with his beak, he acts fine and normal.

mrssittingduck

hi, the problem with the birds beak overgrowing may be because he is ageing and while he may still have many years of life left when they get older they tend to use up more minerals and vitimins in their body , it usually suggests fatty liver disease which the main cause of is by eating to many sunflower seeds which are very high in fat, my birds have basic diets with a limited amount of sunflower seeds carefully weighed up and added to a different pot , and they dont have them every day, however it can also be caused by other high in fat seeds or generally occur naturally when the birds grow older.. it may sometimes be spotted by small black patches on the beak and i mean small, this is one of the late stages of the disease though and does not always occur
if the beak does continue to grow at a very high rate then a vet visit will be required ...

i suggest frit trees and willow brances as i know these are safe for the birds to chew, im not sure about pecan branches , their are some trees that are poisonous for the bird to eat so you have to be really careful, if you have a river or stream or pond around then usually you can find a willow tree, just snip a couple of thinish brances off every now and then,
i will find my list of poisonous plants and see if pecan tree is on the list and if not let yo know,
while apple branches are safe for the birds apple seeds are poisonous, so yo cant go on what sort of fruit you feed them to assume the brances are safe to as they are made from different things,
will do some searching for the list and let you know,
good luck with him or her, if it is vitimin shortage you could grind up the blockls so it gets the vitimins but you cant force the birds to chew unfortunatly ,
best of luck
katie