Nestling with bloated abdomen

[KarenB]

This morning I discovered one of the chocolate self babies fledged and went into the week-old babies' nest. I'm hoping that he doesn't decide to camp out in there. But then that made me look over into the nest he came from, which is the big basket, to see what his sibling was up to. I expected them both to fledge at the same time.

Well, the little one didn't look to be quite right, so I took him out to inspect. He has a bloated area in the same area as Dylan's little Jack had, but not quite as large. His feathering seems to be behind development compared to his sibling's, as in still some pin feathers, but he seems otherwise okay feather-wise. I gave him some probiotics and held him for a little while before putting him back in the nest. He pooped on me once, then squirted me again as I put him back in the nest, I'm assuming from all the liquid probiotics he was given.

He has gone to sleep in the back of the nest He is now by himself, so I'm hoping the Fab Four parents continue to feed him. His crop was fairly empty when I took him out but had a small amount of food in it. I did give him a little formula but not much. He didn't really want to take it after he took the probiotics, though I didn't give him a choice on that.

So, Sheather, anyone, is there something else I could be doing to help? What did you do for Jack?

[KarenB]

Can anyone help?

[Sheather]

I hand-fed my Jack a few times when he was less than three weeks old, but the swelling wasn't really severe until around the time he stopped accepting it. By and large Jack recovered without much human intervention, however I believe his survival was only possible thanks to the Java sparrows which fostered him, which were on a delayed 'rearing cycle' compared to the society parents and as a result continued to feed him well past when the societies weaned their chicks. His growth was less than half as fast as normal, but now he is an almost normal flying, independent adolescent who is just a little bit clumsier than one would expect for his age. I'm still unsure what he had or has. Hopefully your little one will be okay too.

[KarenB]

Well, interestingly enough, he fledged out and went in to join his sibling in the small wicker nest. Now there are the four parents, the two fledglings and three nestlings crammed in there.

I removed the large basket, cleaned it out -- in case there was some yucky stuff in it, which I did not see, just slightly smelly -- and refreshed it with all new material. Pebbles has been in there redecorating it since. I am thinking about removing the two fledglings from the small wicker nest (if I can) and putting them back in the big basket. Plus, I want to check the abdomen on the one. Plus plus I'm a bit worried that everyone is going to suffocate the three tiny nestlings.

[finchmix22]

KarenB
Is that fledgling from the same parents as the other finch (I don't recall Dylan's little Jack)? If so, there could be something genetically or in the way they feed the babies? Sounds almost as if he was constipated? If he pooped in an explosive manner? Keep us posted.

[KarenB]

Both the fledglings are chocolate self societies with parents that are not related. The male parent is a 2013 bird, and the female is an 8-month old. These babies were fostered by my original two pair of societies who have successfully raised several clutches now. They were fostered only because the Self parents began fostering gouldians just before these guys were hatched. They incubated all the eggs together, and I was afraid they were not being fed well enough because the gouldians were a bit bigger. I didn't take the chance, at any rate.

The first poop he did on me was normal. The second time was after I had been holding him for a while and I assume the liquid probiotics I gave him squirted out as I was putting him back into the nest. So I'm assuming nothing is blocked. His vent is clean.

Here he is before he fledged and went to the small wicker nest with the others.


And here they ALL are. I'm worried that the small babies are going to get knocked out of there again. I've already picked them up twice off the floor under that nest in the past week. I'm considering taking that nest out and making them all go into the big basket.

[finchmix22]

KarenB
That is quite crowded. If the fledges are not weaned, I'd move them into a bigger nest, but the parents may not keep feeding if disrupted, so you'll have to watch and judge how they may react. So cute, by the way.

[lovezebs]

KarenB
Oh my goodness, there is way too many in there. If there are hatchlings under all that, they wouldn't stand a chance. You know me, I would move them all into a bigger nest and make some breathing room in there.

Glad your little fella fledged, and hopefully will feel better now that he's managed to poop. He sure didn't look very comfortable in that first picture , kinda looks like he has a belly ache.

Good luck.

~Elana~

[KarenB]

I removed the small wicker nest altogether and put the nestlings in the big basket, and now that's the only nest option. I was pretty certain the parents would not be too disturbed, because they just go where the babies are, plus it's now the only nest so they have no choice. There is now tons of space. Whew. I'm really glad I removed the weaned juveniles from that cage the other day, too, or it would have been even more ridiculous.

The abdomen looks about the same, but the baby doesn't act any differently than his sibling. I gave him a little more probiotics when I had him out, but he wasn't too impressed with me. I sure hope this issue resolves, though. I never want to lose babies, but I really want this one to make it. I placed him into the big basket with the babies. His sibling went in on his own. Parents followed. They are all snuggling in there now that lights are out.

I also discovered his NFS band has come off -- boo -- and I don't have another one that fits. I went through the trash to find it. It had settled in the second layer of nesting material, not too hard to find. It is a size C. I tried on a D band, but I didn't want to try and force it on, and I don't have any E's for 2014, which would have been perfect. I do have some coming for 2015, but I'm sure it will be too late to even put that one on by the time I get them. I guess he will just not have any jewelry like his sibling. Oh, well.

[KarenB]

KarenB
That is quite crowded. If the fledges are not weaned, I'd move them into a bigger nest, but the parents may not keep feeding if disrupted, so you'll have to watch and judge how they may react. So cute, by the way.

The fledges were in the big basket to begin with, but after they fledged, they wanted to join the babies in the little wicker nest. Crazy birds.

[KarenB]

KarenB
Oh my goodness, there is way too many in there. If there are hatchlings under all that, they wouldn't stand a chance. You know me, I would move them all into a bigger nest and make some breathing room in there.

Glad your little fella fledged, and hopefully will feel better now that he's managed to poop. He sure didn't look very comfortable in that first picture , kinda looks like he has a belly ache.

Good luck.

~Elana~

If you look close at the photo, you can see two of the nestlings. One of them has its head laying on the edge, and the other one is upright on top of one of the recent fledglings and sandwiched between a couple of the parents. The third one had crawled on top of all of them. I think he was getting too hot. At one point they were all panting.

Lesson learned. They won't be getting any more small wicker nests in the future, at least not with four parents who insist on all sharing one.

[KarenB]

Here is Twinky and Cupcake (names I'm going with for the moment) with their 3 baby cousins in the big basket. The parents were gathering breakfast, so I took the photo op. It looks like one well be brown and one gray.

I could not see the abdomen clearly. I hope all is well when I get home tonight.

[Jen]

Precious babies!!! Everybody keeping each other warm! Cute! I love babies!

[MiaCarter]

Oh my goodness! That was a hella crowded nest!
That is *so* society finch-ish! LOL

Good call on the basket. I'd hate to see you lose one of those littles because they fell out and got cold.

I'd just keep a close eye on your baby.
Are his poops normal in terms of color and so forth?
In littles, I always worry about yeast infections, which can cause a lot of digestive upset.
Birds tend to poop when they're frightened. So it's possible (highly likely, in fact) that second watery poop was just a function of being frightened. When an animal poops when scared, it's often watery because the poop is expelled more prematurely than it would have been otherwise, so the body doesn't absorb as much water as it normally would.
(In fact, that's the mechanism that leads to diarrhea. The digestive system moves matter through more rapidly and the body absorbs less liquid, resulting in a more liquid poop.)

I'd just continue with the probiotics.
Hopefully he'll keep progressing and growing nicely, getting through whatever is ailing him. Hopefully it's just an upset belly and will self-resolve.

Keep us posted!
Does this little peanut have a name? He's super cute!
Looks like a Curt.

[KarenB]

MiaCarter The one with the belly is Twinky. At least that's the name that keeps coming to mind as my term of endearment for him (or her). The other one is Cupcake, unless or until I come up with something else I like better. Got a feeling those will stick, though.

I got a look at Twinky tonight and couldn't tell his belly was any different, but he was bright-eyed and curious about what I was doing when I changed the water tonight.