That's good. Pippin is making contact with the baby. That's a start. She isn't flying away right away now. After 15 minutes, you can try again.

Please note that I have no experience with this kind of situation. I'm really just guessing. I think we are going to need Sussane for this. Worst comes to worst, your just going to have to feed the chick from day 1 until he is weened. Make sure you get some baby cockatiel formula and a syringe and learn how to hand feed a baby just in case you so can be prepared.

Alright, fingers crossed. Fed the baby a little more liquid and tried to put him in. Pippin was okay with it for a minute, but then left the bucket.

JJ has been really into the nestbox lately, and Pippin has been showing increased interest too, so I tried sneaking in the two eggs and baby under him while he in the nestbox. He was initially freaked out when the baby moved, but he's now sitting on it. And Pippin finally went in too and they're both sitting finally! So fingers crossed they stay this way. I just peaked in the box to make sure they hadn't kicked the chick to the corner or something because I didn't want to disturb them. They're used to me shooing them off the bucket (Pippin trusts me so much she'll literally let me lift her off the nest) but they turned into hissburgers in the dark nestbox.

Amazing story. I am SO touched by all this. The picture of the baby with part of the shell removed brought tears to my eyes too. I'm very involved in this story and wishing you and the chick well.

They got used to the chick and the nest box? That is amazing. You probably feel relaxed now that the hard part is over.

Yes!

I'm currently equal parts relieved and "I need to go check on the chick right now to make sure he's okay!" (I had an alarm set for every half-hour last night to monitor him, so now I want to check him constantly). But normally I'd be at work right now and the birds would be alone in their room, so I'm not going to disturb their schedule further. I am working from home though, and I've got the door open in case I hear a calamity.

This is WONDERFUL news! New parents don't always know what to do with a baby at first in any case. You had to remove the egg from the nest to assist the hatch so your parent birds didn't get to witness all the sights and sounds that go along with hatching, which might have contributed to the confusion.

The important thing now is to make sure they feed him. It's normal for the parents to wait up to 12 hours after hatch before they start feeding the baby, because all that egg yolk in its tummy will sustain it for a while. They don't know that it was a difficult hatch or that the baby was already out of the egg for a while before they saw it. So keep an eye on the situation, and if you see the baby getting dehydrated or weak give it some liquids or handfeeding formula.

Here's Susanne's article on assist feeding newborns: http://www.justcockatiels.net/assist-fe ... -nest.html

Pulled baby again. Pippin is out of the box (in fairness it is not her turn to sit) and JJ is alternating between sitting on the eggs (I assume, can't actually see him) and chewing on the entrance hole more. Eggs and baby felt cool, and baby's intestines were black again. He was a bit far from the eggs, but I don't think Pip and JJ rejected him, I think he just wandered away--he's very wiggly and surprisingly ambulatory for something that looks like a miniature plucked chicken.

Warmed him up, got some more coconut water and fed him a few drops. Snuck him back under JJ. He's still got a lot of yolk visible through his abdomen so he should be okay for food for a day or two. Gonna grab handfeeding formula just in case. Now if mama bird and papa bird would sit on the nest...JJ didn't have a bad reaction to the baby being back in the nest, but he was rather more focused on trying to to remove one of my fingers so I'm not sure that means anything.

It's good you were there quick enough before the baby chilled to death. I hope they figure out soon what they are supposed to do.

Blergh.

Tried to put baby back yesterday afternoon. Found him yesterday evening about two inches from the eggs, buried under wood chips, and chilled. Pulled him overnight to be under the heat lamp because I didn't trust them to keep him warm overnight.

Gave him a drop of formula this morning--he was really begging and really hungry. He swallowed a bunch of air he was gulping so fast. I made it really liquid formula (like a slurry) as I'm not sure exactly what consistency the formula is supposed to be at this stage and I didn't want to overload him.

He was still wriggly and begging after the formula, so I tried once again to stick him in the nest--eggs were stone cold this morning and neither was on the nest, but they did go back in after breakfast so I thought maybe there was a chance. Pippin attacked him immediately. Kind of at a loss now. I have to call the vet today about my dog anyways, so I suppose I should see if one of their vet techs can show me how to handfeed. Watched a few videos but they're all with older chicks.

Pretty pissed at Pippin and JJ right now--I didn't even want them to have babies and now I'm stuck caring for it! I'm working from home today and it'll be the weekend, but not sure what I'll do on Monday. I kind of used up my work-at-home time these past two days. If he can wait every four hours to be fed, I can feed him right before I leave, dart home for lunch and feed him, and rush home after work to feed him again, but the guides say they still need feeding every three hours...My mother is also off work and could theoretically feed him, but she's more freaked out about killing the baby accidentally than I am.

I bought leg bands because I wanted to do things Properly, so if by some miracle this little goober survives he gets to be MN CKKO 01.

Here's the little bugger. Temp's low because I'd just taken him and the bucket away from the lamps to feed him. Some of his down is still matted from egg fluid--I've tried to wash him off several times but that stuff is apparently uber sticky:


Here's his crop--I don't know if you can tell how much of that bulge is air but it's most of that bulge. Google searching seems to indicate that this is less than ideal, but not dangerous.

I fed him an hour ago--his crop is already empty and he's (very loudly) begging for food. Do I feed him again or wait the two hours?