# How to tell chicks apart?



## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

2 of my cockatiels eggs just hatched and they both have yellow down. I am wondering, what can I do so that I can know which chick is the oldest and which one is second and so on? 

I don't have any leg bands and I am not sure how I can color the chicks? They move too much. I was thinking of using a sharpie but I recently was a picture of cockatiels with the top of there crest black, and I don't want that for my babies.

Any suggestions are welcome!


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## SoCalTiels (Oct 8, 2013)

You could try just putting a dot from the sharpie somewhere on their back? Not coloring anything on them, just like a tiny marking so you have an idea of who's who. I was almost thinking sharpie one of their toe nails but sometimes my birds nibble at their feet, so I wouldn't really consider that safe. I can't imagine they're very different size wise.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

I have heard of some using food coloring on the feathers to mark chicks until they can be banded. Set a certain color for each chick and then you can tell them apart.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

Thank you!
I ended up using a washable marker to mark each bird. I used green for the oldest and brown for the 2nd. 
I don't have food dye anyways.


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## blueybluesky (Jul 9, 2013)

I used different coloured sharpies for mine and marked the top of their heads with it because their feet were to small, I had to remark them every few days as it started to wear off though.


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

ive known people to use nailpolish on toes, and its redone when needed, leg band are only used from 10days until you can no longer get it on 15 days, some have successfully gotten them on during the fledgling period when birds loose weight to try to fly, but well I never tried.


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