FN>     We had baby 'tiels.  The parents threw 'em right out-- didn't
FN>     want anything to do with 'em.  It was sad, really.  Anyway, my
FN>     younger sister and I decided to step in and take care of the
FN>     newborns...
FN>     One died in a week, and the other hung on for six weeks and then
FN>     SUDDENLY died.  I got so upset, I thought that I killed 'em but
FN>     the lady at the pet store said that it's very rare for a baby
FN>     'tiel to see maturity when it has NEVER been taken care of by
FN>     its parents.  She also said that humans don't normally hand-feed
FN>     until they are a few weeks old.  Is this true?
I'm sorry to hear about the loss of the babies...that's hard to take.
MOST humans don't feed tiels from day 1. A friend of mine has two pairs
whose eggs she must incubate, or they don't hatch. She ALWAYS feeds from
day 1, and her babies do fine.
Many things can cause chicks to die. Most likely cause for younger
babies to die suddenly is aspirating (inhaling) formula. It's SO easy to
do--sometimes the babies 'spit up' and inhale food after they've been
put back in the brooder. The older one may have had some sort of
bacterial infection or something--it's hard to say without a necropsy to
find the cause of death.
That's why it is so important to have a necropsy done whenever any bird
dies, unless you KNOW it was caused by an injury you saw happen. If you
know what killed one, you can help prevent it from happening again.
Give the tiels a rest for a while, and if they try again later, be
prepared to pull the babies. Some pairs take a couple tries to figure
out what to do with those noisy little things!
      --Kathy
 * SLMR 2.1a * A man who loves birds will be long remembered as kind.
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