So cute. I use to think that newly hatched chicks were so ugly until Bitsy and Roscoe chicks hatched and then I found out how so very cute they are. Now I love pics of the little ones.

Well, let's be honest, tiny tiels are not the most pretty babies! But they grow so quickly, and their faces change constantly... It's a joy to watch them!
Cknauf you are making me broody, this is not good lol
Having some little mutants myself... Hmmm

No Barbara!!! Please don't start laying eggs!!

LOOOOOL

So watery oatmeal + Harrison's High Potency Mash is apparently the perfect food, if how quickly Pippin and JJ wolf it down is any indication. They consumed about 1/3-ish cup of the stuff in the course of about an hour. Got concerned about the babies' crops for a second before I realized they'd fed them nothing but oatmeal mash.

Sounds interesting. How do you make it? Do you think that this is something that could be left in the cage overnight for when the chicks are being fed thru the night?

I got some oats, prepared them as per directions (1 cup boiling water + 1/2 cup oats, simmer until oatmeal-y).

Portion out a bit, I do about 1/3 cup. Add enough water* to make it soupy again. *(I've actually been using pedialyte, because it doesn't keep and because it only comes in these great big jugs so I have so much pedialyte).

Add in Harrison's High Potency Mash. I have a scoop I use that I think is just shy of 1/4 cup. Mix it all together. Serve.

It's a very wet food so I wouldn't leave it overnight, although feeding it just before bedtime would probably be fine. I don't think the parents actually leave the nestbox to get more food during the night; they seem to just stuff themselves before going in for the night and feeding from that reserve.

Handfeeding formula is also a good thing to mix into oatmeal or any other soft food that the parents are eating. Most of it is going to end up in the chicks, so it's like handfeeding the babies using the parents to deliver it instead of a syringe. I haven't checked into the Harrisons mash, but their high potency pellets are pretty similar in makeup to their handfeeding formula and I would expect the mash to be similar.

My mother insists I need better names than Blacktop, Yellowtop (one of the 'twins' has a yellow crest, the other a black), Whitey, Middle Child, and Tiny.

Whitey is a sleepy goober. He does his required "I'm a scary big bird!" hissing when I pick him up, then promptly falls back asleep.


Blacktop has really, really dark toes. Like so dark I initially thought there was something wrong with him. But they feel warm and he can walk around no problem so I think he's just got really dark toes. The camera does not capture how grey-black they are in real life.


I also think Blacktop has pied feathers. Maybe?


Blacktop is the biggest chick, and the biggest "I'M A BIG SCARY BIRD HISS HISS HISS" instigator. He does not like being held. At all.


They never stop moving

OMG the babies are soooo cute!!

Carolyn--when you add the formula, do you add it dry or do you mix it first.