He's an active little thing, isn't he! Totally adorable Has he started flying yet? It looks like his plumage is at the right stage for it.

He grew so fast! I love that begging noise.

He hasn't flown yet, but he spends a lot of time gripping a perch and flapping. I'd expect him to try any day now. He's still hesitant about getting out of the cage on his own, or leaving me if I have him out.

He's showing a lot more interest in the pellets and seed in his cage, and I put in a few toys that he's been happily dragging around.

One of srtiel's guides for sexing pearls says that males have a dark tip to their tail feathers, while females don't. Little chick has a dark tip to his tail feathers...but then again so does Pippin. And strangely my two pearl males don't have dark tips, although that could be because they're both also pieds. Little chick is very talkative and seems to be attempting to mimic the sounds of the other birds. Not sure if this is just a normal part of chick development, or a possible sign of a male. Then again, if ever there was a cockatiel hen who was a talented mimic, it would be JJ's daughter...

The tail color is a fairly weak indicator, not as reliable as wing spot sexing. Susanne feels that wing spot sexing is pretty reliable but most people disagree and think it's iffy. It certainly tells a lot of lies in my flock, but I get the impression that the spot gene has a disruptive influence.

That's the impression I got, but the desire to know if I've got a little boy or little girl is building. Kind of tempted to get a DNA test.

I THINK I read somewhere that wing-spot sexing doesn't work on pearls. I guess this little guy will keep us curious until his first molt. Keep a look out on behavior, my Tommy started singing and doing heartwings at 3 months.

What a wonderful little baby! I agree that the dark tips on wing tails are not a good indicator. My 3 baby pearls all had it and they ended up being a mix of males and females.
If you can resist the temptation, you will know soon enough if it's a boy or girl, behaviour will give that away. Even if she's a girl and chatting, there are other things that only boys do.

Good to know it's still pretty likely I have a girl. I prefer female pearls, since male pearls lose theirs.

I checked in on the eggs Pippin and JJ have been sitting on, and three currently have external pips. Kind of surprised. I've been mostly ignoring these eggs tbh, and was half-expecting JJ's earnest but inept parenting to be their doom. I've checked in on him multiple times to see that he's only sitting on half the eggs, with the other half rolled into the opposite corner. But lo and behold...

That's so exciting! I hope these babies will have a successful hatch and that the parents will take good card of them. It won't hurt to co-parent the babies once a day when they are 2 weeks old. They will be super tame.

Well, I learned that Pip and JJ do in fact both carry the genes for whiteface, as the chick that hatched is white face. Unfortunately it also died. It has a huge bruise along its side. I don't think it's a bite? Maybe one of them mushed it against the side? Pippin has been incredibly anxious the last few days...