8 Day old Cockatiel..HELP

[Prettywings]

Hello, Just wondering at what age are the cockatiel chicks too big for the parents to sit on? my chick is 8 days old, the parents are feeding him constantly but they are not always sitting on him...just wondering if maybe he is just too big sit on?? I do notice that he always gets away from the nest (on the bottom of the cage). I noticed that he is pretty mobile..he uses his legs and pulls himself around on his bum...his eyes arnt open yet so he cant see where he is going!

Just looking for some advice!

[Greycloud]

Well obviously this breeding was a surprise for you, otherwise you would have a nest box for the parents to raise the baby in. You need to put some type of container down the baby can be in and line it with carefresh bedding or pine bedding. During the day the parents are going to feed the baby and stop every so often to sit on them. * days is tiny. The parents spread their wings to cover the babies. I am assuming you have no handfeeding experience and are going to just let the parents wean the baby.

[Jan]

8 days old is not too old for the parents to sit on or hover over by spreading the wings. Babies do need to be kept warm in order for their food to digest properly. Should you see their food not empting out in a timely manner then they maybe experiencing slow crop/sour crop and it is not a good thing at all. You should also feed parents better stuff to feed their babies, but they won't eat it unless they are use to eating other stuff besides seeds.