The title says it all; I think Pip could be retarded. It's not that I'm trying to be mean, but his behavior seems to be a bit off. Wich makes me wonder, ¿Can birds be "retarded"? Or mentally ill?

I also belive this because of his Malnutrition he got when he was a baby. And when I see Coco along with Pip, they look extremely different, not just because of their different personalities, but because Pip looks "a bit off".

I'm sure that birds can have these problems, and malnutrition does cause mental retardation in humans so it might have interfered with his mental development. It could have caused other physical problems too. Give him a high quality diet now to maximize his health of course. Interacting with him and giving him interesting experiences might help him develop his physical and mental abilities further. But it's possible that he will never be as healthy and smart as Coco.

That is so sad. Pip will never have the life he deserves.

I have tried giving him nutriberries, but he just hisses at them and throws them away. Only Coco craves them. I think Pip doesn't really know what a nutriberrie really is, seeds and all the good stuff. I've also tried giving him vegetables, and the only one he is sort of interested in, is broccolli. It doesn't mean he looks into it. Also, sometimes Pip and Coco have some fights, at noon, they look harmless, but at night, they're very harmful, so i have to place the divider for them to sleep. And because of this fighting, Coco won't let Pip eat. He sees Pip comming to the bowl, and Coco just jumps at it to prevent Pip from eating.

Sometimes, Coco pushes Pip off the perch and onto the floor to have it all for him. So i have to take Coco outside for a while so that can Pip can eat some seeds. Coco feels like the "alfa" between him and Pip.

This has really been an issue now. My sister even said she wanted to give me some budgies as a gift, but now, it'll be impossible.

It could be possible that Pip could have experienced some brain damage from the malnutrition, which would have given him some neurological problems. He could've just not had very much mental simulation as a chick, which will result in some low-functioning adult birds. You can try giving him little challenges, like simple foraging toys (for foraging food), which can give him some mental simulation, which will improve his mental ability. "Foraging toys" can be as simple as a small Tuboware filled with shredded paper and treats, where they require to search for the treats hidden.

If you have trouble giving him nutri berries, you can try shredding them, to where they will look more like seeds. One would think him seeing coco eat it would let him know that it's food, but perhaps that's just not always the case.

It he does have neurological problems, I can tell you, somewhat from personal experience (being diagnosed with autism and all), it's not likely that you can 100% correct the problems, but you can get pretty darn close. Even some of the most basic training provides the exercise of mind, and you can't get any more basic than target training.

Does he know to step up, yet? If he does, then you can already teach him to wave on command. If not, then you can start with the most basic of them all: target training, where you get the bird to "bite" (or simply touch the stick with their beak) the end of a stick for a treat. This does give mental simulation, because he'll learn to make the connection that "touching stick with beak = treat". Target training is also good, because through it, you can teach the bird to do much more. I can give you some guides and articles, if you're interested.

Speaking of which, I need to get Lucy back into her training. we've been slacking off for a while, now.

As for Coco's aggression towards Pip, it sounds like Coco doesn't accept pip as a member of the flock. You can try fixing that, once you have some millet sprays (if your uncle will get it for you at the October bird expo). You can put a couple sprays on top the cage, as well as putting them on top of the cage. They can eat from their own sprays while near each other. The more comfortable they get, the shorter you can make their distances. The goal will be for them to eat from the same spray, without any problems.

Now when you say Pip looks "a bit off", I'm curious about what you mean. Does he have some behaviors that seem peculiar?

It's really common for cockatiels to argue with each other at bedtime. A distance between birds that was perfectly fine during the daytime suddenly becomes unacceptable. I call it "night time is the right time for a fight". It sounds vicious but it's actually pretty harmless. But Pip is physically disadvantaged, so it's good that you separate them to prevent this arguing. Coco can probably knock him off the perch pretty easily. All my birds do this but the chicks argue louder than the adults do, so maybe Coco will settle down and do it less when he's older.

One way to reduce possessiveness over food is to provide more than one food bowl so that one bird can't claim it all for himself. If Coco wants to be a jerk with one food bowl, Pip can go to the other one.

It IS sad when a baby is given a permanent disability like this right at the beginning of its life, and it was totally preventable too. But the damage has been done and all you can do is give him the best possible life within his limitations. If you end up breeding birds, make sure you give the parents an excellent diet so this doesn't happen to your chicks!

Thank you so much! I never though of it; giving them 2 food bowls. Although Coco has claimed the food bowl, Pip has claimed the water bowl; he poops on it!! but I'm gonna see what happens when i give them another food bowl. Just now, Coco is over the food not letting Pip eat. Thank you so much!!

Coco will have a serious dilemma when you put in another food bowl. Which one will he claim? It's possible that he won't claim either one of them, and each bird will be able to eat from whichever bowl he prefers at the moment.

Seems like a lot of birds don't know the difference between a water bowl and a toilet lol.

I think Coco has already decided; he went for the yellow food bowl!! I placed the bowls way up high so they'd have something to do, but Pip just saw the other food bowl alone, and went for it. The only problem, is that Pip won't come down, as if he were to be thinking: "Why leave the buffet when you can wait and eat twice!!".

No but really, he's just being a fat sloth!!

I also didn't realize that the water bowl had poop on it until noon, and I saw coco drinking from it a couple times before I changed it!!

Pip has been kept away from the food by naughty Coco so I don't blame him for wanting to guard his new food source. If Coco decides to try eating from that cup he might get an argument lol.