Pied inheritance is actually pretty random - the way the parents look is not necessarily the way the babies will look.

Oh, I thought it was partially inherited. Hmm, no idea then!

Little chick is now 30.7 grams.

Should I move the eggs Pippin laid into her cage? She laid them outside the cage, so idk if she'll try to replace them with more eggs or if she'll get upset that she can't always reach them.

Pictures of the little tyke.

Recently he's taken to wedging himself in the corner to sleep.


We did not enjoy our first venture outside (I wanted some better-colored photos):


What's going on with his feathers? His primaries don't look pearled, but his other feathers appear to be. Or at least his primary feathers and his other feathers aren't the same color.

Is it possible it's from JJ's pied genes?

Lovely to see the pictures! He is lovely.

I agree!

It's hard to say what you should do with the egg. If you put it where she has continuous access she's pretty much guaranteed to lay more eggs and go through the whole incubation cycle. If you don't give her a nesting setup it's possible that she'll stop now. I think I'd wait and see what happens before making a decision, and step up the hormone control.

Pippin seems to have stopped at three eggs. That was her last clutch size (she laid the fourth to replace the smashed egg), so I think she's done. They're already on 14 hour nights and I've rearranged their cage; might try a 24-hour light day this weekend.

Had a slight mishap with the chick. He's starting to walk around a lot, and while he can walk on cloth or paper he slips and slides all over the wooden table. I was feeding him, and he took a step off the cloth and his leg went out from under him, he jerked and I let go of his head, I pulled the syringe back and accidentally depressed it a little and shot him with formula in the eye. I washed it out with warm water and a cotton cloth and now his eye seems fine, but he's started to sneeze on and off so I'm worried he aspirated a bit even though he didn't show immediate signs.

I don't think aspiration would make him sneeze. Sneezing is a sign of something in his nose, not in his lungs. If he was wheezing or making odd noises when he breathes that would be a sign of possible aspiration. Hopefully whatever he's gotten in his nose is harmless and will be blown out quickly, but it doesn't sound like an aspiration problem.

His eye should be fine. I can't tell you how many times I've deposited formula on the wrong part of the baby (including in the eye or on the cere) because it squirmed at the wrong moment, and it didn't cause any problems.

Well that's good to know. Sneezing has stopped, so I hope he got it out...

He's starting to sleep like a real bird.


He can perch a little bit, so long as I hold really still.








He's at 41 grams now. Looking at various sources, he's about half the weight and several days behind hand-fed chicks his age.