Alright, so I read somewhere that a possibly cause of a voice change is an iodine deficiency. Weird... didn't think birds needed iodine.

What are some iodine-rich foods that birds can eat? Salt's bad for them, so that's off the table. I'm gonna try this first, and see if helps or not.

You can get a Iodine block for birds

Here is a list of iodine rich foods, a lot of them you probably won't feed a bird, but there are a few you can. Yogurt is fine as there isn't any lactose in it because of the cultures. Hope it helps!
http://bembu.com/iodine-rich-foods

Thanks Paula. that really, really helps. It seems other than the voice, Lucy is fine. So I'm hoping this is all she needs to fix the voice problem.

Ah, boiled eggs are on there, good! I've been meaning to give her some, because of the other vitamins it has. I guess that's one more reason.

Iodine deficiency is mainly associated with thyroid problems. Iodine is in pellets and Nutriberries so she's getting some already. If you want to add more you can provide a mineral block that's got it, or one of those brown salt wheels made for rodents. Salt is an essential nutrient so a certain amount is actually required. If you check the ingredient list for pellets or Nutriberries you'll probably see salt listed there, and this book: http://www.amazon.com/Comparative-Avian ... 0851992196 written by a UC Davis professor says you can use table salt to meet the nutritional requirement.

Arid climates have a lot of salt in the soil which gets taken up into the plants, so cockatiels come from a salt-laden environment and are adapted to deal with some salt. I wonder if they actually require more than some other parrot species because they crave it, especially when they're breeding. They're definitely able to scarf up several spilled salt grains off the kitchen table without any harm, which happens in my house sometimes. Sodium deficiency is associated with cannibalistic behavior in chickens - they crave blood, apparently to get the salt in it. It seems to be one of the major causes of chick-plucking in cockatiels. It's common for cockatiel show breeders to provide salt wheels. srtiels gives them to her birds (she's a VERY experienced breeder that several members here know), and I do it too.

Birds can get a goiter as a result of iodine deficiency just like humans can, but it works differently in them. In humans, a goiter is a bulge sticking outward in the throat. In birds it presses inward on their windpipe and interferes with their breathing. In the olden days before vets, pellets, and other modern methods were easily available, it was recommended to treat goiter in pet birds by giving them a little iodized table salt, and I did it myself in the early 1990s or sometime thereabouts.

Ah, I see.

Though her breathing seems fine right now. It's not that her voice is quieter. It's just lower in pitch, but she can still get as loud as she did before. I may still try it though, just to make sure.

That explains why Lucy likes to eat some of the salt grains on the table, too.

Interesting that you say that causes plucking behavior though, considering the new baby was plucked. The breeders feeds them pellets though, so iodine might not be the issue there.

She hasn't been eating as many pellets. I'll have to get her started on eating more pellets again.

There are two major reasons for plucking, and there might be other, more subtle reasons for it. The best known is plucking to try and make the chicks leave the nest. This usually kicks in when the babies are about three weeks old. The usual explanation is that the parents want the chicks to fledge so they can start a new clutch, but I think there might be more to it than that. I've seen pictures of wild juveniles who looked like they were plucked, and most of the time conditions in the wild aren't good enough to support two clutches in a row. Babies are very vulnerable to predators when they're in the nest, so I wonder if the parents want to get them out of the nest for safety reasons. The predation risk is high outside the nest too, but at least they can fly to get away from it at that point.

When they pluck the babies at a younger age it seems like sodium deficiency is the biggest problem. They get a droplet of blood from the quill which has salt in it. Salt wheels help prevent this kind of plucking.

Shodu did a weird thing this year. She didn't pluck/barber her second clutch until after they'd left the nest, and I wonder if it was for identification purposes. It was obvious that salt cravings and wanting the chicks out of the nest didn't have anything to do with it. There were fledglings from three different clutches flying around the bird room, and the other pairs sometimes fed babies that didn't belong to them. But Buster and Shodu didn't feed anybody but their own chicks, who were clearly marked.

I can't exactly tell, but I think Lucy's voice is starting to get a little better. I may need to hear it a little more to tell for sure. She's also getting a bit more vocal, so she's definitely feeling better.

I gave her a lot of nutriberries today, so maybe it was iodine that she was missing. Does treating for goiters even work that quickly?

I think it's more likely that the voice issues are related somehow to being outdoors than to iodine deficiency. Maybe she ate something that irritated her throat or she screamed herself hoarse or something. Or maybe it was the overall nutritional deficiency from going hungry, and now she's catching up again.

It's been a long time since I used iodized salt on a bird that had started wheezing, but I think it did take effect pretty quickly. So if it actually was an iodine problem the Nutriberries may have solved it.

Well, her voice is definitely getting better. It's even better today.

I heard omega 3 reduces inflammation as well, so if there's omega 3 in nutriberries, that could be helping as well.

She's starting to eat a little more of her pellets, which is a good thing. It seems that aside from being underweight, she's fine. She has just about all of her energy back, and I catch her flapping her wings while in the cage.

The fact that she didn't catch anything while out there is quite surprising. She doesn't even show signs of having mites. Needless to say, I am relieved.