Hopefully the weakness this morning was due to dehydration, nothing else. Are you feeding him during the night? Tiny babies like this need to be fed round the clock - it's a nuisance but it keeps their strength up.

Keep an eye out for signs of crop problems and/or yeast infection. These are major risks with handfed chicks and he's starting from day one. The TC sticky at http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=27514 has links to Susanne's articles on crop and development issues, and Susanne's newer website at http://www.internationalcockatielresource.com/ may have some additional articles.

I think there's anyone who could take him--tbh it's not as much as a burden as I thought it would be. That could be because I bought a bunch of Mt Dew to keep me awake though

I'm feeding him round-the-clock, tielfan. Every two hours, or occasionally three hours if his crop hasn't completely emptied. I'm checking his crop for yeast at every feeding. A couple of times now it's taken an additional hour for his crop to fully empty, which seems to be just temperature-related. Once was he'd wandered over to the cool side of the brooder, the other was I hadn't realized the AC had kicked on and I needed to move the lamp a bit closer. I wish thermostats weren't so expensive. And once was he got dehydrated between feedings, so I must have mixed the formula too thick.

His crop always empties within three hours, he's got a good color, and he's having nice poops so fingers crossed he's doing well.

I got a picnic basket at the thrift store and rigged up a pretty handy brooder--has handles for carrying and a divider so I can keep the chick on one side and all his supplies on the other. I'll post pictures later.

It sounds like everything is going pretty well. You've obviously been doing your homework and are very diligent about taking care of him. I wish all bird owners were more like you!

Thanks for the compliment...I try.

It took 6 hours for his crop to empty overnight. He wasn't dehydrated and his crop contents feel liquidy, not doughy or anything. It was emptying at a steady pace, but not as fast as I think it ought to have. Temps were right. He seemed weak and couldn't hold his head up anymore and was really begging and flailing around. Fed him a few drops of warm coconut water several times to try to help things move along.

He seems to be doing better this morning. If temps are right and he's not dehydrated, then I'm either feeding too much or he's starting to get an infection. Hopefully it's the former. I'll be cutting back on how much I feed and maybe feed him a small amount every hour instead of a larger amount every 2.

I am wishing you great luck with him. You are very responsible. Can we have a picture of the cutie? How many days old is he?

Have you gotten a response from Susanne? Her advice would be very helpful right now.

No, I haven't. I might post in ACS asking for advice.

Brooder at work is working wonderfully! And he does seem to be perking up again.

Edit: He was officially out of the egg at 7AM, July 31st so he's 4 days old. Pictures forthcoming. Developmentally he looks about the same as pictures/videos of other 4-day-old cockatiels

I have identified the source of at least one problem--my syringes are not the same size. I got a handfeeding syringe at the pet store, but it was so big compared to the chick that I went to the drug store and got a smaller syringe for giving little kids medicine. The small one was marked cc's, and the larger one was marked mL. These are the same measurement--a cubic centimeter and a milliliter are the same. I've looked this up like 3 times.

The syringes, however, are not the same amount. 1 mL of the big syringe is about 2-3 cc's of the little one. Does cc possibly ever stand for something else? It's possible I've been drastically underfeeding the chick. Videos of feeding four-day-old chicks have drastically bigger crops than my chick. He's also begging constantly and has a slow crop, both of which can be signs of malnutrition.

I'm going to head to the vet today to ask some advice, use their good scales to get a weight, and see if by chance they a better handfeeding syringe. The big one from the pet store is just too big with his little beak, so half the food ends up slopping down his face.

As far as I know cc always means the same thing - cubic centimeter. It's possible that the smaller one is marked wrong. Now that you know the big one and the small one don't measure the same, you could figure out how much you need to put in the small one to get the appropriate amount as measured by the big one. You probably need more than two hands for the following test so get a helper: block the tip of the big syringe with a finger and pour plain water into the top to get an appropriate amount - let's say 3 ml for example. Plug the tip of the smaller syringe with a finger and pour the water from the big syringe into the small one and see what the measurement is. For example if it says 7 cc then aim for that amount at the next feeding.

There are lots of different types of syringes on the market and some have small tips - see Susanne's article at http://www.internationalcockatielresour ... nsils.html for a discussion. But what you can get your hands on today is probably pretty limited, and unless your big syringe is macaw-sized the baby will grow into the bigger one. So if the vet doesn't have a suitable one on hand, it might be easiest to use the small one and adjust for the skewed measurements.

The vet actually had perfect syringes, so I'm set there. They even gave me multiple sizes so I can scale up.

Half-empty weight at the vet was 4 grams, which I think is small but if he hasn't been getting enough that would explain that.

Crop seems to be speeding up, fingers crossed. He was fussy all day though.