My Cockatiels Odie and Luna finally gave me some babies! Luna laid 3 eggs, two of which hatched. The babies are a week old tomorrow (Saturday)!

Here are some photos! The photo with the yellow fuzz is from today, and the white fuzz was taken yesterday.




They are suuuuper ugly, but they will get cuter in approximately 3-4 weeks time lol.

I weighed them today, and the white fuzz baby isn't gaining enough weight, and each time i've checked them, his/her crop has been empty. Healthy weight for their age is 6-12 grams, and while yellow fuzz weighs in at a healthy 10 grams, poor white fuzz only weighs 5, so he/she will be pulled tomorrow and hand fed.

Arent't they hideous?! ♥

Slight resemblance... Hahaha. I can't wait to see her grow into a pretty little bird!

naw, she needs a name thats astrologically inclined.. like Stella, or Étoile :) something spacey after luna ♥

The more I think of Stella the more I like it haha

So, it's not Yellow Fuzz, but Yellow Fuzzette? :P

Or I could name her "Elara" which is "moon of Jupiter, named after one of Zeus's lovers", and then when she's old enough, get her a boyfriend and call him Zeus :P

Noting these here so I don't lose them

Eliana - "Daughter of the sun"
Celia - "Of the heavens"
Oriana - "Rising sun"
Stella - "Star"
Kira/Kyra - "Sun"
Tara - "A star"

Called it.

I think a like. Nocturnal astrological name would be cute for her. And then her boyfriend get a solar astrological name. :3

She is. Of course. Just going to be yellow fuzz to us forever. 

Link Tree

They look like feathery baby T-Rexes!

Haha they really do!
She's progressing slowly. I'm upping the frequency of her feeds and thickening her formula, so we should start to see some pretty good weight gain over the next week!

Yay!

I like Elara or Celia :D

16 days old today.



Development wise, she's around a week behind a normal chick. So she's not doing too badly. You can see the pinfeathers coming through on her wings and on her face where her crest will be.

Her personality is starting to shine now and she's developing a very sassy attitude lol.

Well, our feeding schedule is going out the window lol. She isn't gaining as much weight as I would like, so some of my Cockatiel forum friends got me in touch with a super experienced breeder who is like.. The goddess of raising stunted Cockatiel chicks.

She has explained to me that in cases of stunted babies not gaining enough weight, less is more in regards to food. In baby Cockatiels (probably all birds), feeding more just makes their body work harder to digest the extra food, so instead of relaxing and gaining weight, energy and reserves are being used for digestion. SO. No more scheduled feeds and no more feeding til she's full. She now gets fed 10% of her body weight each time her crop empties. Which really depends on her. It could take an hour or it could take 3 hours. I just have to watch her.

Other than her weight gain she is developing well. Her pin feathers are coming through and she is a super strong baby, so once she starts putting weight on there will be no stopping her.

awwww < 3 go little yellow fuzzeroo!! slow and steady wins the race! i like how her toes are all bendy :p i guess the bones aren't hardened yet?

She's almost starting to look like a bird!

Not quite, but they're getting stronger. She's starting to cling on to my fingers with her feet when I feed her now :P

too. cute. omg ;;

nawwwwww! Serious love for yellow fuzz - has she graduated from teacup to margarine container yet? hehe 

Little bubkins!

Yes! And she's almost figured out how to climb out of that. Little brat lol.

AHhhhh!!!  You aren't going to name her Fuzz Butt officially??? hahahha  I am glad that she is coming along, and hope she starts gaining weight soon.  She's still pretty silly looking I must admit! :P

As for serious names I like Elara and Stella! :D

I now need a taller container to put her in to weigh her and while she's waiting for her formula to be prepped. I turned away for a second to put the coconut water back in the fridge, and when I turned back she was sprinting across the bench toward the fridge lmao.

I'm starting to see patterns forming on her wings! And they are getting super long and she's starting to flap them around and spread them out for balance. Two of her toes on each foot are starting to bend back to form her back toes, and she's got pin feathers coming in on her face, neck and crop :D

Also, because she's stunted, it's very possible that when she's fully grown, she will be a good size smaller than a "normal" cockatiel. I am 100% completely okay with this. How cute would she be lmao.

A teacup Cockatiel!!! :P