Welp, we've officially survived 24 hours of newborn chick and inexperienced handfeeder. No problems overnight! Only, what, 44 more days to go?

It does get better. The bigger the chick is, the less risky the handfeeding process is, and eventually the chick will need fewer feedings. You've done great getting this far!

Congratulations on a successful 24 hours!

We're starting to be able to balance for almost a whole second! He's not this red in real life, my cell camera just amplifies reds a lot. You can see the black spot on the back of his head--that's a bite from Pippin. He's got a less visible one under his eye too. His feeding reflex is getting more energetic. He wanted food before, but now he really wants food.

He is so cute! I am wishing you great luck with him.

He's adorable! How could his nasty daddy peck something so cute? Be sure to check his weight at least once a day to make sure he's gaining at a good rate.

I have two ancient kitchen scales--one reads now 3-4 grams and one reads 14-ish, both of which sound wrong to me. They're old enough scales that I imagine they might not work well anymore. They do okay for higher weights, but they're fluctuating a lot at the low end (the one that reads 3-4 will read anywhere from 0 to 15, but is most often on 3-4). The postal scales at the store were like $50, whereas Amazon had a few highly-rated ones at $15, so I've got a new scale on-order, should arrive Monday or Tuesday.

Is it possible he weighed only 2 grams yesterday and weighs 3 today? Pippin is a pretty small cockatiel (~90 grams and has a short body compared to the boys). JJ's much bigger and heftier though. I don't suppose you know the genetics of weight, tielfan? Just for curiosity's sake. Be interesting to know if cockatiels take after one parent or the other for body type.

The genetics of weight aren't well understood even in humans. Weight is a complicated, it's influenced by both genes and environmental factors. I don't know how many genes influence weight but I bet it's a lot more than just one. Height is also influenced by multiple genes, in humans at least.

It's unlikely that he weighed 2g yesterday and 3 today. He probably weighed at least 3 grams when he hatched, and he's lively and vigorous which is a good sign. I doubt that he's losing weight. You'll know for sure when the new scale arrives. Susanne says babies should gain their hatch weight every day. Obviously you don't know exactly what his hatch weight was, but once the scale comes you will hopefully see a weight gain of 3 to 5 grams each day.

Until then, a good way to check his growth rate is to put one of the unhatched eggs next to him and take a picture, if you still have the eggs. He was originally small enough to fit in an egg and he should already be too big for it. If you don't have an egg you can use something else like a quarter, and taking pictures will help you see the progression. Susanne's "Watch Me Grow" article at http://www.justcockatiels.net/watch-me-grow.html is helpful, but don't compare your baby's weight to hers - that baby was bigger than average.

Ah, nothing is simple.

He can hold up his head all on his own now. Had a bit of a scare at 6 AM--his feeding response was practically gone. I had to really entice him to get a response. Fed him a little coconut water and a small amount of thinner formula, as he'd gotten a bit dehydrated. His feeding response was very much back at 8 AM, so not sure what was going on.

Still have the eggs; good idea of comparing him to them!

I'm so sorry your going through this. How long until you will find someone that will care for the chick?