At the end of August my pair of tiels had couple of chicks hatch out. I left them to it and thought everything would be okay. I wouldn't of said they were experienced parents as they'd only had one chick at the beginning of the year, but I'd of assumed they knew what they were doing at this point. Nope!

On the 8th of September I looked into the nest and notice that they had barely grown. At 2 weeks old I was expecting them to be covered in pinnies, eyes open and what not but this wasn't the case. They were pretty naked still, had closed eyes and were quite dehydrated. I was really upset. I'd not long thrown my last batch of formula away and I didn't particularly want to use Kaytee anyway. I asked around and a friend told me there was a store not too far away where I could get some NutriBird formula. Off I went. I managed to get the chicks fed up with a more watery formula that day



I kept an eye on the chicks and noticed that the parents were only feeding them on the late evening. I didn't want to take them for full hand-rearing as it is more beneficial for them to know they're still birds (in my opinion) so I popped them back. My idea was to co-parent them until I deemed them fit to be left alone. This was them on the 13th after my daily feeds!



I couldn't believe how far they had come in such a short period of time. I was adding pure coconut water to their formula at this point so I could make sure that they were remaining hydrated enough. Fast forward to the 19th



They'd had a massive growth spurt by the 22nd





By the 24th they were almost fully feathered! And I was no longer having to give them their morning feeds. Momma decided to finally start looking after her own kids





Then this was them today













I'm so incredibly proud of them. They've become such sweet little girls and honestly they're a pleasure. The extra work put in by myself has paid off. They'll be leaving the nest in the next few days I think. They're stupidly hands on and very very friendly

In case anybody was wondering, they're lutino cinnamon pearls split to pied

Gorgeous chicks! I like to co-parent to socialize the babies too, although my parent birds do a very effective job of feeding them. Your parents may or may not eventually figure out that they need to feed the babies in the daytime too, so you'll need to keep an eye on them with future clutches.

Ordinary water will do just fine for hydration if the babies are being fed regularly. When they're actually dehydrated it's helpful to provide electrolytes and coconut water will do this, but there are less expensive ways to get the same results. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elle-penn ... 82330.html

They have done so amazing! I remember when they were really stunted and opened their eyes at a later date! Well done!

They're so pretty! I love Lutinos, they're so pretty.

They look like Pearl Lutinos too. I like their wings!

Thank you for the link, I wasn't aware of that! They had a bit of guardian angel on the first few days too and I made the formula a bit more watery. I was only having to do their morning feeds (I was doing two) and then the hen would go in and finish the rest of the day off. I'll definitely be watching them in the future. I've been breeding tiels since I was about 8 years old with breaks on and off and the last two pairs I've had haven't been the best parents and I have had to pull the chicks for full hand rearing. These guys did a good job with their last and only baby though, who I also kept I handled him a lot as a chick, no feeding or anything, and he's turned out quite pleasant. Not that you'd think it with the name Lucifer (he was very beak slap happy as a chick)

Thank you! I was so worried about them but they've come along in leaps and bounds

Thank you! Yes they're cinnamon pearl lutino split to pied

Stunning tiels .....Luv the colours

Thank you! I didn't realise how pretty the lutino pearls would be

I'll never get lutino's myself (nothing against them, can't get my head around the genetic material I have already) but I fell in love with these 2...

Nice work !