I am starting this blog so others looking for information on cage set up and care of blind Cockatiels and other birds can learn from our experience and we can learn from others experiences.
Sunday night, I saw someone offering a special needs bird (Choo a blind Cockatiel). My heart and my families heart went out to this little guy.
He was in a cage with 5 other Cockatiels and they had plucked all of his crest out. Her daughter had spent alot of one on one time with him, and they really loved this little guy. He slept alot and loved to snuggle.
So I sent a PM to his owner offering him a home and started researching care of a blind Cockatiels, Cage Set up and Training. Wow talk about a difficult mission to find information or photos of cage set up etc. There was plenty of stories about how loving blind birds are, but little real information.
I picked him up Monday morning at 10am and we renamed him Chewie (Star Wars fans).
He was very stressed and nervy, he would hiss when he heard any sound (ie someone touching his cage), and bite when handled. I observed his interactions with his previous owners for 30 minutes approximately, and when I arrived home got my neighbour (a avid aviculturalist) to give him a health check, when handling him he used the same technic as the previous owner as I told him what commands they were using. I watched how he reacted to the handling and when my husband arrived home we had a discussion about my observations and formed a tentative plan for our handling of him.
He is amazing, he feels his way around with his beak and smells his food.
Blog entries to come are Blind Cockatiel Cage Set Up and Caring For A Blind Cockatiel.
Disclaimer, the information contained in this blog is based on our experience, it is important to adjust your approach to meet the birds needs. We are not experts and are learning as we go and we read alot.
How wonderful of you to give Chewie a new home. I can't wait to read more about him.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm really glad I found your blog. Our one year old cockatiel got his eye bit and we are so sad for him, we don't know how to make adjustments for him to make him live comfortably. He tried to hide it, but you can tell his balance is off. I hope you will update us on how Chewie is, our bird Nibbler was also a special needs bird who recovered from being attacked by a cat.. Poor little fella didn't even have a tail when we took him in, and now this! He is so sweet too. Welllll, we shall keep checking out your site for updates!
ReplyDeletePoor little guy.
ReplyDeleteChewie doesn't have any balance issues, but he was born blind in both eyes, so hasn't had to learn how to adjust from being sighted.
Hopefully Nibbler will adjust.
My advice is watch him in his cage and work out what works for him, what he likes etc. For example, we learnt very fast that Chewie hated toys they scared him and didn't like big gaps between perches. He loves ladders etc. So we adjusted the cage set up to his needs and then made no other changes. I am stocking up on his favourite type of ladder as he spends 90% of his incage time sitting on the same rung and chewing the rung 2 above it, so he goes through them pretty fast.
Chewie loves to feel us so the rule is if you are watching TV or reading get him out and sit him on your finger or knee, have a chat to him or read to him.
I will do a full update soon. :)
Good luck with Nibbler and please keep me informed of his progress.
I am adopting an older blind cockatiel who has been in a tiny cage with one perch for the last 1.5 years. I'm glad I found your blog! I would like to contact you with questions if you would email me that would be awesome! hiddenkitten84@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteSo glad to have found you Chewy and family! We have several "normal" cockatiels, but we were asked this week if we would consider adopting an Albino 3.5 month old Cockatiel .... My hubby and I talked it over and it didn't take more then 2 minutes to say YEs ... I have several handicaps but the major one is Rheumatoid Arthritis...and we have several retired Show Doggies, Shelties, Collies .... My husband and I decided that birds might be a good thing for me ... as my RA progresses and we get older ... smaller birds are mine ... cockatiels and budgies.. my hubby has two rescued Amazon Parrots and two Timneh Greys and one IRN, named Casey who is a love!!
ReplyDeleteso .... I will happily read through your posts to see what we need to do!!!
sincerely
JoZ ... Casper's new Mom!!
Thanks for this Blog !!
ReplyDeleteIf you could help us we really appreciate it. Male cockatiel 11 months old. Very smart for a cockatiel. Taken really good care. Cage is always open. We always played with him couple of hours every day. He knows 10-15 different songs 4-5 different words. Awesome bird. By the way we are in Sydney and its summer in here.
Our cockatiel Nuri has had an accident 9 days ago. One of the furnitures fell on his head (that's what we assume).
When we found him on the floor his left eye was almost popped out and bleeding. His right leg was paralyzed and fingers were crossed and he was traumatized. We immediately took him to the hospital and an avian vet examined him. We were suggested to put him on sleep. But we wanted to give him a chance. Rejected.
Day 1
Vet initially put him in an oxygen box.
Has given butorphanol 10mg/Ml injection. And stayed in the hospital.
Started meloxicam every 12 hours
Not eating or drinking. He is Tubefed.
Under reptile heat lamp.
His posture was abnormal. Bended to the right side. Opposite of the damaged eye
Day 2
Still in hospital.
On Meloxicam, not eating or drinking
Under reptile heat lamp. Tubefed. Eye slighlty got better but still quite bad.
Day 3
We took him and wanted to continue his treatment at home. We were already charged almost $500 and took him due to our budget
We were told his weight was 85 grams.
We tubefed him every hour around 1 gram every time. Still completely quite minimum movement and eye got slightly better. Still on meloxicam.we were told to keep the room dark, quite and warm under the reptile heat lamp. Droppings very liquid. The food and the water is on the floor. Reachable.
Weight is 78 gr.
Day 4
Still completely quite not eating or drinking at all. Tubefed every hour. Still on meloxicam. Under the reptile heat lamp. Still bended to the right hand side. No positive change.
I started whistling the songs he knew and the words he memorized. When I say his best word he was shaking his head as if he wants to replies but he just can not.
Day 5
Everything is the same. Weight is 74. Getting worse. We started feeling his bones when hold.
Day 6
All same. Weight is 73 gram.
Day 7
Same. Weight is 72 gram.
And that nighy I have taken a risk and wanted to do opposite what we were suggested by the vet and we have washed him (shower) and put him in his cage in and moved to the living room where he normally stays. Turned the air condition on. And I basically hold him and put his mouth into the water. Wanted to give him a kick. And after 20 seconds he started drinking water 5-6 times. Not eating.
Day 8
I took his cage and put him outside. Started tube feeding and finished one tube but after an hour MIRACLE just happened and he started eating by him self. On the very same day he once did a climbing in his cage. We were very excited and really happy. Weight surprisingly increased to 85 grams. I kept him cool.
Day 9 (today 28/12/16)
Almost like day 8 he is less bended to the right. Fingers are sometimes crossed. Still eats himself thankfully. I kept him cool. Called the vet explained everything and she was too surprised. Eye got almost normal. Swelling is almost gone.
At the very moment he is sleeping too much and he eats and drinks. Drinking looks a bit more than usual. Liquid droppings. Not completely quite. Its sound is very low and deep.
We suppose that he is blind. I did some experiments on him. Left him on the table and we can not find us. First he checks with his mouth and then steps. I put paper on his way and everytime he hit the paper. He did not see it. He steps to our finger when he touches. I wanted to annoy him to observe his reactions. Touch his head on the left. He tries to bite but he is weak. Just like when he was 2 months old. When I do the same thing on the right, he can not turn to the right.
I think his nerves got damaged and effected his vision. This is our assumption. Does anyone have any idea ?