Both eggs continue to develop. They're both squirmy little things.

Got a hygrometer. Reading in that room is 70% humidity, which seems high to me. We have had pretty significant water problems in the past, but we've spent a lot of money fixing them. We have a dehumidifier running constantly. I might need to find my moisture meter and make sure water isn't coming up through the floor again . It has been raining a lot here, but still.

I was reading threads about detached air cells on chicken forums (apparently a big problem for chickens). I never saw the air cell in the one egg detached (it would have been free-floating, and always wherever the highest point of the egg was), but I suppose it's possible it detached and then re-attached. Going to try to get into the ICR group today either way, because although the hatch rates for chickens generally aren't too much lower when the air cell is abnormal, they don't hatch normally. I want to be prepared with some backup if this turns into an assisted hatch.

If you have any problems getting into ICR, here's Susanne's article on hatch assistance: http://www.internationalcockatielresour ... dated.html I've never had to assist a hatch, but Baruch has done it so he might be able to help if necessary.

And in case of an emergency, Carolyn can ask Sussane for permission so you can call her. Sussane helped me over the phone to save my chick.

I think I was rejected from ICR? Not sure. The "cancel request" button on the page went away.

I've read that hatch assist article several times now, just in case. I've got almost everything on hand. The only thing I don't have is a heating pad, but I do have several heat lamps that should serve the same purpose. The embryo with the abnormal air cell seems to be in the right position though--if I'm identifying body parts correctly, its head has now come up and is resting against the air cell. Fingers crossed.

Pippin has started sitting very tightly; she'll only be off the eggs for maybe 10 minutes at the most. She also isn't letting JJ sit. She's not chasing him away or anything, but she won't get off of the eggs and she's sitting in the center of the bucket (she still refuses the nest box ), so JJ doesn't really fit. Sometimes he gets frustrated and just sits on her...crazy birds.

Marshmallow was the same exact thing. She would never get off her eggs. Maybe once or twice a day. It means she is responsible and is going to be a good mommy. (unless she wants to double clutch, in that case, she will want to reject the babies to make room for more babies.)

I'll hope it's the first.

I don't want to get too excited about babies, just in case. Buuuuut I was using the genetics calculator to figure out what kind of babies I could get, and whilst reading about splits I discovered that JJ might be visual pearl. I guessed he might be split because he has some ghost pearling, but all of his non-white tail feathers are mottled, which would indicate he's visual. That would mean 100% pearl babies! He's around a year and a half, he must have molted out his baby tail feathers by now, right?

Pippin is also possibly split pied--she's got the oblong wing spots, although they're broken up. She also has one white toenail.

They've both got yellow streaks in their cheeks, which is possibly split to whiteface? I'm not as sure on this one.

But if I'm right:

13% Pied Whiteface Pearl
13% Pied Pearl
25% Pied Pearl Split To Whiteface
13% Whiteface Pearl Split To Pied
13% Pearl Split To Pied
25% Pearl Split To Pied Whiteface

Those are some pretty babies! (combined male/female since it was same percentages for both). I'm getting way too excited--eggs are a lot more "real" when you can see the little embryo kicking.

Those are beautiful mutations.

Did you post something on your wall telling why you want to join ICR? Susanne is a stickler about the requirements listed at http://www.internationalcockatielresource.com/ Although I think she usually sends people a message to let them know her decision.

There are two places where messages can arrive on Facebook; there's the regular Inbox, and if you look at the top left side of the page while you're in your Inbox, there's an "Other" tab right next to it. Click on the Other tab to see if you've gotten a message from her and it landed there.

Yes, I did. She sent me the link to the assist hatch page. I forgot about the "other" tab. I have a lot of spam messages...

Honestly I don't know why she's making it so hard for people to join. The people who do manage to get in aren't particularly special.

I have doubts about the signs of a whiteface split. I think it's a possible indicator, nothing more. Ladybug has streaks in her cheek spot but she's had zero whiteface babies even though she has a whiteface mate.

Back when I was still active on TC it kind of annoyed me that so many people would authoritatively declare that a bird was split whiteface if it had these signs. So one day I posted these two photos and asked people what they thought.

Ladybug:


Teela:


It was a trick question. Teela has a whiteface mother so she's definitely split. Ladybug is apparently NOT split. Of course everyone replied that both of them were split.