If he's begging I'd feed him. He knows when he's hungry.

It sounds like the parents abandoned the first eggs and want to start over again in their fabulous new nest. They may have figured out that the other eggs aren't going to hatch, and a scary alien invader turned up in their old nest site.

Is it possible to bring the baby to work and feed him there? Some people can do that and others can't. It depends on the nature of the job and how accommodating your boss and coworkers are.

Another possibility is to try to locate someone who can take the baby and raise it. Your vet might know someone who raises cockatiels, and if they have a pair who's just starting to hatch out their chicks, this one could be fostered to them. It might mean giving up the baby permanently, or maybe you could pay them to raise it for you and then give it back.

Yeah, I fed him again. Pip and JJ missed out--he's a fabulously easy baby. Tap his beak once, his mouth opens and he eats like a champ. Near as I can tell he's doing exactly what he ought to be doing. Didn't get any big air bubbles in this time either. Not sure how much I ought to be feeding him--the guides say 1ml and that seems like waaaaaaaay too much. That's as much as his head, and while I know chicks frequently have bigger crops than heads I worried about overfeeding. He got three drops of slightly thicker formula.

I could possibly take him to work. People are allowed to have fish at work, and when someone asked if a tarantula would be acceptable HR replied "so long as it can't escape". Tiny little baby should be acceptable, the only problem will be rigging up some sort of heat source and messing around with formula. I'm more worried about keeping everything okay for him than someone at working saying "Nope, take him home". I'd get an incubator but a $700 vet bill for one of my dogs wiped out my discretionary and vet funds and those things are expensive. Will probably look into making a small homemade one if I don't make other plans for the baby today. My heat lamp + bucket solution is working very well but it is not portable.

I'm calling the vet in just a moment; I'll also contact the lady who runs the local bird fair to see if she knows anyone. Unfortunately the bulk of breeders I know from the local bird fairs live 3-4 hours away, and transporting a baby this young will be a problem.

I don't know. But, my instinct would say to feed him if he's begging.

Vet referred me to the local bird store (which I had completely forgotten existed, whoopsies) but they don't open until 11. So...we wait.

I would take a look at this link: http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/handfeeding.html

If you keep scrolling you will see a chart that shows how many times you will have to feed at what age.

Oooo, that's the best chart I've found.

Currently I'm feeding him approximately half a cc every hour. A cc is the same as a ml, right? His crop looks so big that I don't want to feed more...you can actually see the food go down his throat though. That's pretty cool. My mom was watching (she's a teacher) and mentioned it would be a great biology lesson

From what I've googled this position is normal...or at least 1 site says it is, and another site that plagiarized from the first site says it is:



It is also adorable. Every so often he yawns and stretches his legs. I think he's feeling full and comfy. Or at least I hope so.

We're now on a 1ml-every-two-hours schedule. After the first few feedings he started begging for more food up until I fed about a ml. He seems to be doing okay; he's sleeping a lot and wriggling about when he's not sleeping. Crop's emptying between each feeding. I'm worried about aspiration just because it's so easy and "some babies show no signs" so idk.

Have been waiting to hear back from the store for 4 hours now.

The smell of handfeeding formula is very pleasant. It smells like babies and makes me happy. If it weren't so expensive I'd keep some around just to sniff.

That's really good. Just a quick question, do you want to keep the chick? I'm just plain curious. Also, if you give him to the vet, can you try to give us pictures? I wonder what mutation he will be n