Ask Lafeber

Newborn Cockatiel not being fed

My two young cockatiels recently breeded, and one of the eggs just hatched this morning (I’m not sure exactly what time, but we found it at around 8 in the morning, dry and clean). However, it’s been 8-12 hours and we haven’t seen any signs of the mother feeding it. She is sitting on it and the rest of the eggs for most of the time, but she is clearly exhausted sometimes and needs to refuel. The father is currently separated from them bc of mate aggression (I tried putting him in with the chick, but he was too scared to approach the nesting box). I have all of the supplies to feed it by hand, but I lack any experience with baby birds at all. I’ve watched videos and read up on every website possible.
I’d like the mother to feed it herself if possible, but I’m not sure how long I should wait before feeding it myself.

Hi Reem,

Hopefully the mother fed the chick. Cockatiel chicks are very hard to hand feed from day one, and they usually die even when the most experienced person tries to hand feed one. It is always best for the parents to feed the chicks, at least for the first 2-3 weeks. The problem you have is she needs the male’s help, and possibly both birds were too young to let them breed. Cockatiels should be at least 2 years old before you let them breed. Even then, the first clutch almost always fails due to mistakes by the parents. It’s sad, but you have to let them learn if you plan to keep breeding them. When you let them breed when they are too young, they are not ready to settle down and take care of eggs and chicks. The males especially are more interested in mating than helping with eggs or chicks. This is why he will get aggressive, because he wants to get rid of the eggs and chicks so the female will mate with him. Unfortunately, the odds are against this clutch surviving – you have first time parents that are too young, and a male that isn’t interested in helping. Whether any chicks survive or not, as soon as they are no longer in the nest box, you need to take the box down and not allow this pair to breed again until both birds are at least 2 years old. If the male still won’t help once he is older, then I would not breed this pair again. Some birds never make good breeders. If you do breed this pair in the future and they do well, you still have to remove the nest box and rest the pair for 6 months, after every clutch. You should only allow them to have 2 clutches per year – in the wild they would only have one clutch per year.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda