r/Cockatiels • u/CloningMammoths • 2d ago
Is my cockatiel sick?
I took my cockatiels to the vet for a wellness checkup and they weren’t too thrilled about it. It’s been almost a week since now and my one cockatiel who would always get on my hand is scared of me and runs away every time I get near the cage. He is also much puffier than he was, he’s still playing and eating and singing, and his feces looks normal, but he will still remain a little puffy while he plays and I’m not sure why? Especially his underside. He was not like that before. Also, he would assert dominance over the other one and be kind of a bully but now he’s not and the other might be a little more dominant now? They’re both going through a molt so I’m not sure if that has something to do with it. I don’t think he’s cold I mean the room is at 75 degrees like it’s always been. The vet said they’re both healthy, but she wasn’t an avian vet and she refused to take blood or anything, she basically just listened to their heart and lungs and then charged me $200. Nothing she told me was anything I didn’t know from Google. Also she had to look things up on Google so I’m not really confident that she knew much about birds. It felt more like a money grab. Unfortunately, the only avian vet around here is over an hour away. I do have a wellness check with the avian vet for the both of them in about 3 weeks that I was going to cancel because I found a vet closer, but if this is something serious I’d like to take him to the avian vet to get checked out. But if it’s also not serious I don’t want to keep stressing him out. I’m just a scared bird mom and am trying to read the signs. Every bird I’ve had that’s been sick I found out too late to do anything and I lost them.