Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 2 cockatiels that I adopted on Saturday. It seems that the previous owners neglected the birds, since they are extremely afraid of me and my family. At the moment, the birds are not doing well.

Problems:
Feather plucking (one of the cockatiels only has 2 feathers left in its tail). Though both of the birds are doing this, one of the cockatiels only had a few tail feathers to begin with and I found three more lying on the bottom of the cage this morning. I saw the other cockatiel pull out a tail feather, but it has not done it again and its tail still looks decent.

Bleeding. I cannot find any blood anywhere in the cage, but one of the birds has red blotches on its right feather and from what I can see, there seems to be a cut on the front part (near the breast) of that same wing.

The birds will not let me handle them at all. They flee even when I put my finger in (though they have gotten somewhat used to it by now), so there is no way for me to really figure out how they are doing. Also, I know I have to take them to a vet asap, but I don't know how to do it without upsetting them when I try to get them out of the cage.

I also saw one of the birds biting its own foot. I don't know exactly what this means, and it is not mentioned in any of the books I have read.

At least one of the birds is grinding its beak. The books I have read state that this means they are content if they do this as they are going to sleep. However, they fail to mention what it means when they are wide awake, and I am sure it is not a good thing!

The only good news I have is that both birds are eating and drinking water, but other than that... *sigh*

cockatiels feather plucking!?!?!?!? that's a rare sight to see & i think you're right about the neglect. The only thing i can suggest is give them plenty of time to settle into their new environment. PLENTY because they're gonna need it. Any bird that has come from a bad home previously is not going to seetle easily. Extra vegies & grassy stuff or if they won't eat that some extra vitamins added to their diet. I'd day the bleed spots would be from the feather plucking. Keep an eye on them because they can become so destructive & start putting holes in themselves too. Are they caged together? How old are they. If they've been caged together more than a few months it might be hard to seperate them. You can try putting them in 2 seperate cages but put the cages next to one another so they can still comunicate with each other. You'll need to try & do this if you want them to get used to you & tame. If they've been together in the same cage for so long...& are in really bad shape they may not tame to you unless you try & seperate them & taming will take a very long time when they're in this condition. Don't put your hand in the cage unless you have to for feeding etc...until they're calmer, this could take some months, a year...by the sound of their condition, so you will need tons of tlc & patients for them. Any kind of forcing will just keep putting them back further & further. The best way to take them to the vet is in their cage, covered. Make sure the vet is avian. If you take them to a normal vet they often have no idea what is going on & often say it is normal, it's not normal. If your vet is avian they should also know to be careful of what to prescribe for the tiels & know that it's dangerous to give them any kind of sedative, this can kill them. Beak grinding is usually a sign of content, mine does it sometimes when he's relaxing. I don't think theres anything to worry about there.

Get them to a vet asap.

Good Luck!!