I know it is difficult to tell what these are, so I am going to tell you. This is a picture of 5 baby cockatiels. This little fellow in the lower left corner is probably the oldest of this clutch. The little pink one behind the white one is probably 1 day old. I do not remember what year this was but there were several years that I was in the bird nursing business. Like everything in my life this started out so innocently.
Kenneth, my late husband had always wanted a parrot. Well parrots cost a lot of money, so the compromise was made to give him a gray Cockatiel, so that is what he got. That was one mean bird, so we thought he would be better humored if he had a wife. So we purchased a White Cockatiel to be his bride. As luck would have it, this was a match made in heaven. Or seemed made in heaven until she laid her eggs and decided that was not for her. So she ripped the eggs out of the nest, but Big Bird put them back. It was soon clear that Baby was not going to be a good mother so she was removed to another cage and Big Bird hatched the eggs. He tried to feed them when they hatched, but it was too much for him. We put Baby back in, and she attacked the babies. So it was clear what must happen. I must be the surrogate mother to these little feathered creatures.
This entailed mixing food and feeding them with an eye dropper several times a day for a couple weeks until they could fend for themselves. All the time Big Bird hovered near and spread his wings for them to sleep under. Big Bird had a bad wing and could not fly, but he taught the babies to fly, They were in a big flight cage with a limb in it. He would line them up on the limb and then push
the line of babies up the limb and as room ran out the first bird would fall off the limb and flutter. It was at this point that I learned just how much Mother Nature had instilled in her wildlife. Big Bird had never laid an egg and he had never seen a baby, but he knew what had to be done and did it.
Meantime down in the cage in the basement, Baby was as happy as she could be. I would set her on my shoulder while I sewed. She would rub her head against my neck and chew on my glasses. No sign of the aggressive bird that tried to kill her babies.
We hand raised all the babies until they were ready to go to new homes. We named all the gray ones "Snapper" and all the white ones "Baby". One "Snapper" went to Alamosa, one to Syracuse, Kansas, and I do not remember where else. We raised several little batches of baby birds and it always went the same way with Baby. Well, and with Big Bird and with us. Baby just never was the mothering type. Sort of like some women I have met.
When they reached a certain age, birds die and it was that way with our two little friends. Baby died first and it was very soon after that Big Bird also died. I like to think they were flying around the Rainbow Bridge when Kenny walked over in 2003. I know he would have smiled to see them, cause one thing is for sure, that man loved his animals and they loved him!
