bloody tail feathers

Question
I have two 5-6 week old cockatiels. I was gone most of the day
and when I came home I noticed they both have blood only on
the end of their tail feathers, its dry and I cant seem to find and
feathers that appear to be broken. I have hand fed these two and
put a lot of time into them. I dont have a lot to spend to take
them to a vet, but they act ok and eat and drink as  normal. I
dont know what to do or if I should just wait another day to see
what happens. do I try to clean that blood off. and at this age
are they okay to stick strictly to pellets and what little they eat of
seed and veggies and fruits they pick at. We do let them out
two to three times a day and they are pretty good about flying
about and landing correctly with an occasional bump into the
wall. please help

Answer
Hi Tara,

I'm sorry to hear that you don't have the funds to take your birds to the vet. I would recommend getting a jar or something and saving money in it as a "just in case" vet fund for your birds. Ideally, you would be taking them to the vet when you first got them and then annually from then on (even if they seem healthy).

I am no vet by any means, but I would assume that if the bleeding as stopped, they are probably fine. I would take a warm wash cloth and wipe down their feathers/bottoms so that they are clean/remove the blood.

They should be still getting handfeeding supplements (in addition to their pellets, veggies, etc.... until they no longer want the formula. For most cockatiels this is at 8 to 12 weeks of age. AT 5 or 6 weeks I would except that they would still be asking for formula twice a day. However, some birds do wean earlier than others. Just don't force wean your babies. This can make them needy and overly dependent when they get older. Weigh the birds every day using a gram scale, this will help you wean the birds properly, because you will notice right away if they start to loose weight and will know if they need to be offered formula more often.

I hope this helps.

-Maggie