He is definitely hurting them by biting their skin as well because we can see small sores on their skin. Also we haven’t seen him feed him to today though mummy cockatiel tries to feed them abut he won’t let her. Is it right to take the babies out the box because it seems to risky now to leave them with him in the box. Is it possible to send you pictures or videos?
Hi,
OK in that case, remove him and see if the female can care for the chicks. You might be able to put him back after a day or two. It depends on the bird. Sometimes one parent or the other will stop allowing the mate in the box, and in that case, you rotate them allowing one to be with the chicks during the day, and the other at night. But since he is picking on the chicks and also barring the female from the box, he needs to come out to see if the female will take over. You might still need to remove the chicks, but if they can stay with her for a few days to a week longer, they will do better being hand fed. You could start with removing the oldest chick, to help her out some. But if you have never hand fed before, they will be better off with her as long as she is caring for them. You can also help feed the chicks – hand feed them some but leave them with her. This gives her a break from some feedings. It will be trial and error to see what will work out here. Or if you are confident with handfeeding them, then you can remove them. You can send pics to [email protected] if you still want to.
Thanks for the update,
Brenda
