Bird Could Die from Flying onto Candle Warmer

Hello everyone. I am posting this to ask anyone if they have any advice on how to remove candle wax from my Mom's cockatiel. What happened was my Mom bought a candle warmer and had it running. The birds flew and our female cockatiel flew right into the candle that was sitting on the warmer. The candle was in a small glass bowl and well the female cockatiel landed right into the wax. I came out when my Mom yelled for me to come into the living room. When I came in I saw that she had Nodder, the female cockatiel covered in candle wax. Well my mom ran some cold water over her to cool her down and hopefully help Nodder out.

At about this time, Nodder started freaking out and was getting really stressed out. My Mom decided to put her in her cage and let her calm down. Later on my Mom had to go to work. We decided that we would have my Mom's friend come over and take a look at Nodder. So well my Mom's friend came over and looked at the bird. He looked at Nodder and said that all we need to do was slowly work on pulling the wax from Nodder's feathers. We're really worried about what could happen to her. We have had her and male cockatiel for over 7 years. What I am going to do tomorrow is hopefully take Nodder to Birdcrazy. These guys deal with birds and they might have some ideas or advice on what we can do.
If anyone has any advice on what we can do to take care of Nodder I would greatly appreciate it.

So sorry to hear about Nodder.

The only advice I could give would be take him to Birdcrazy. And don't have them out when you have candles on anymore.

In case Birdcrazy doesn't have ideas, I'll make sure Chameleon sees this post tomorrow. I can't guarantee him having any ideas, but it wouldn't hurt. If I remember correctly, he has a degree is Zoology. Maybe he can suggest something Birdcrazy hadn't thought of.

Hope he's ok!

B_B

Is the wax on the outer top layer feathers or did it get onto the down feathers? If the wax got onto the down feathers, it is going to be pretty hard to remove the wax without plucking a lot of feathers and if the bird loses too much down, they will have a lot of problems keeping themselves warm. Anyway, pet stores have some safe to use cleaners that you could use while gently rubbing away the wax. I would suggest using lukewarm water to not only keep the bird warm, but also soften the wax a little. Do not use hot water. Just make sure to gently rub away the wax. You don't want to pluck too many feathers, this is discomforting to the bird. The top feathers are pretty robust and they have a natural 'waxy coating' that may help the bad wax to come off. If this helps, the bird is going to need some major pruning. Not sure if you know how the feathers work, but there are many barb-like structures that are really tiny that intertwine along the feathers that keep the feathers looking like they are just one solid piece instead of a raggidy looking thing. Too assist your bird, you can take your thumb and forfinger and kinda gently rub down each side of the feather. You will see the feathers sorta 'connect'. Only do this if the bird looks really raggidy, though. She may just be able to do it herself. If she does end up losing feathers, especially if they are down, I would keep a small heatlamp on her, if it is cold in the house or at least put a sheat over her cage to keep a draft from going through the cage. Birds lose heat really easily. Anyway, this is just a suggestion, the bird store may have something better to try. I hope she is ok.

I hope you get it worked out Insane..
If Nodder is anything like my parrot was, then she will try to clean her feathers, so don't forget to make sure to find out if that candle wax will do any harm to her internally just in case she ingests any, or too much of it.. Most candle was is ok, but there is so many that parfumed, its just a good idea to double check..good luck

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am really worried about what might happen to her. I am going to continue putting a sheet over Nodder and Mac's cage at night and try to keep them as comfortable as possible. I am not sure if the candle my Mom used was poisonous. Right now money is very tight and I dont know what I can do. But I am going to try out that thing that Chameleon suggested. There is one thing that bothers me though. Mac, the male bird, is trying to help preen the females feathers. Every time he does it, he seems to be hurting her. I wish I could seperate them but I dont have another spare cage. Also I cant afford to buy a cage. All in all I am going to the best I can. Thanks a lot everyone for your advice.