What is this color? (this chick is a different from others)

Please comment on the legs (to all pictures)

And this is our clumsy cage. It came with Cuddles (she was rehomed to us) and we hated it at the beginning (I couldn't figure out how to organize it nicely). Then we thought it was spacious enough to hold the nestbox. A strange thing is that there is only two openings - front and top, plus two doors for feeders.I am thinking to mount nestbox outside the cage in the big front opening, then the only way to get in and out will be at the top. If I mount nestbox having screws above the door opening, then it will be pretty high and there will be a gap at the bottom of large "door opening". Any ideas?

The baby looks fine, he's just not as grown up as the others yet. The "different" baby is pearl pied and the other three are just pied. The pearl baby is definitely female - you need a pearl mother to get a pearl son, and mom isn't pearl. The non-pearl babies could be either sex.

You can keep the nest bedding at a level where the babies can look out the door but have to climb up to actually pass through the doorway. They'll be pretty well feathered by the time they're able to do that and no harm will be done if they tumble out a little earlier than they planned. You can just put them back in the nest from time to time and let them decide if they want to come back out or not.

Changing the cage around probably won't make the parents start plucking the chicks. If they thought the area around the nest had become dangerous they might start plucking to try and get the chicks to leave the nest, but cockatiels are fairly adaptable and they probably wouldn't respond this way. They're more likely to start plucking if they want the babies to leave so they can start a new clutch, and rearranging the cage may throw them off enough to not want another clutch right away.

Some parent birds will start laying eggs while the previous babies are in the nest and don't mind the older babies being there, but most of them prefer for the older babies to leave. It will depend on the personality of your parent birds. The mother is usually the parent who's most likely to pluck and your hen is acting like she wants to double clutch, so she's the one you have to watch.

If you have the money and space for it, getting a bigger cage and moving the nest to that would be better than rearranging the current cage. This is a great cage for the price: http://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Products-W ... B00176F5L0 and there are three small doors on each side plus two big doors on the front so there are plenty of options for hanging a nestbox on the outside. There's a bigger version of this cage too: www.amazon.com/Prevue-Hendryx-F050-Prod ... 002AQ228/r The food cups that come with it are sucky so you'll probably want to replace them with 'coop cups'. If you decide to get a bigger cage, it would be less disruptive if you let the parents spend some time in it for a day or two to get used to it before you move the nest.

Welcome to the group. Your babies look good and so cute. I have the cage that Carolyn showed you. I have the nesting on the outside at the top of the cage I put a corner SHELF outside the nesting and cover the SHELF with a rubberized material so that the chicks have a soft surface to come out to. I have food and water cups up high also. When the chicks start coming out of the nesting I put food in the bottom of the cage also. I also have a rubberized material on bottom of cage which I cover with paper towels that I change daily..

My chicks are parent fed. I spend 15 in the am and 15 in the pm to socialize them. They are flying now and learning how to step up. They will let me snuggle them briefly and are learning about kisses. They are starting to wean. They get vegetables and soft food in the am and always have seed and pellets available to them.

Tielfan, thank you for the info, it certainly helps to build a picture of what to expect.

delawaregirl, Your set up sounds very interesting, would you mind posting a picture? How old are your chicks?
We would probably have to wait a little to buy the recommended cage as we have lots of other expenses at the time, but we will certainly keep it in mind, especially having number of birds increasing.

IS it OK that the description of the smaller cage says ?

I got chicks out and offered them millet spray, but they didn't get interested. Mom came and ate it

Their nails getting caught in everything: towels, paper towels, my shirt, even plain pillowcase! What should I use for them to grip during short trips out of the nest? Should I take them to nail trimming?

delawaregirl, basically your chicks have an upper floor in the cage just for them (this is how I imagine your shelf) ? What did you use to make a shelf? Are they your first chicks? What do you plan for them when they wean?