# Marvin is a Big Brother!!!!



## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Hello my cockatiel forum friends! Well as you may recall from my last thread, my pair Marshall and Lily double clutched, we have five eggs total and the first two hatched today. One is definitely lutino, has red eyes like the little one we lost in the last clutch. The other has dark eyes like Marvin did. Marvin is a great big brother, but is still making daddy feed him a couple of times a day. He is 7 1/2 weeks old now, but is a total daddy's boy. He eats seed, pumpkin are his favorite, and he climbs like a ninja master now  Here's a picture of the two born today, I'll keep you posted on the other eggs, I did not candle any of them, kinda hard to get to them with the three of them in and out of the box all the time. Getting to be a big family quick. Marvin will be going to his new home in about three weeks. Do you think I should pick up another cage and separate him?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

If he's still getting feeds from Dad I wouldn't separate him as of yet. Hold off on that until you no longer see Dad feeding him at all. Males are more maternal and take more care of the babies the older they get so that's totally normal. Babies are so cute!!


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> Males are more maternal and take more care of the babies the older they get so that's totally normal


Ohh, so that's why the dad feeds the baby much more than the mom
The mother just wants more babies but dad wants to take care of them!
Btw: your babies are soo cute
What type of camera do you use to take photos of them


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Thanks for that info Roxy, he is definitely a daddy's boy  They still let him in the box too and Marshall will feed him in there. He will also sit on the eggs/babies. He's learning to be a good dad himself someday maybe LOL. Won't he make some hen a nice husband haha! 

Anyways, both babies are doing great today. Fuzzier and sitting up and eating. The other three eggs are still sitting there helping to keep everyone warm. I haven't candled them yet. Here's a picture from tonight, mom decided to move enough for me to get a shot. Baruch: The pics of this clutch are just taken with my iPhone, but the pics of Marvin growing up in my other thread were taken with my Canon Rebel T2i. It's a great camera


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## ludanmei (Mar 9, 2013)

I love the little fluffy stage!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Congratulations on the new babes! Marvin might help feed them when he and they are a little bit older - I sometimes have babies from the first clutch helping out with the second clutch.


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

They are so cute


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Was finally able to check the nest box again today on day 5, we have a third chick, looks like it arrived last night or this morning. One of the other eggs is definitely no good, not sure about the fifth egg yet.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Adorable babies, and they all look nice and healthy too!


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

So amazingly enough the last egg hatched, so we have four hatchlings out of five eggs. So we only lost the one DIS egg which had a hole I think caused by the parents probably thinking they were being helpful. So here's a pic of the newest little baby number 4.


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## nassrah (Feb 27, 2012)

Adorable babies!Please,keep us posted about their progress X x


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Alrighty, got a pretty decent group photo of the quartet today  Ages 2 up to 8 days. Everyone is being fed by mom and dad and the whole clan is doing great. They still love their oldest son Marvin and he still sleeps in the nest at night with them and goes in during the day too. He has learned to shower and bathe now too LOL. I have not heard Marshall feeding Marvin since the last two babies hatched, so they may have cut him off now  Time to grow up little buddy  Let me know what you guys think!!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

They're looking great, and the lutino girl is starting to open her eyes. The oldest one is starting to show some grey pinfeathers. It'll be interesting to see if this one turns out to be pied.


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

The other older one is also starting to open his eyes. I can't wait to see what we get, didn't you say before you thought the parents carried whiteface too? This time I'll be doing the blood DNA sexing. I have homes for the Lutino and a second one together with my sister in law. She is so excited and great with her animals. She rescues tortoises. Then I may already have a home for a third one. Having a big friends list on Facebook is helpful LOL.


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Happy Easter from the West Coast Cockatiel Crew


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## Haimovfids (Sep 19, 2012)

They are soo cute!


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Just to update this thread. I pulled all four babies today for handfeeding, they were starting to get plucked by the mother. Turns out one of them (the youngest) is a Cinnamon!! So we have a Lutino, Cinnamon, and two greys. Pretty cool


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## Korvia (Aug 3, 2012)

They are soo cute!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

You might be able to sex your babies by color. If Marshall is split to cinnamon on one X and to lutino on the other, than all the girl babies will be cinnamon or lutino and all the boys will be grey. Buster has those exact splits and it makes sexing the babies pretty easy for me. 

It's possible to have a crossover between cinnamon and lutino, which means that it's possible to get girls who are cinnamon lutino or normal grey when one of those genes moves to a different X. But the crossover rate between cinnamon and lutino is pretty low (estimated rate 3%) so it might not ever happen to any of your babies.


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

That would be super cool to be able to sex them by color. I think that the older grey baby in this clutch is a male, but I haven't gotten a really great look at his wings to be sure. He and the other grey do seem to be bigger than the two girls. It's so cool that Marshall is such a colorful dad  Makes things interesting for sure  Once the cinnamons feathers start to come back in a little more I'll snap a pic of her. Thanks so much for all your help once again!! Oh, I also think the two greys are boys because they are the messiest eaters of the four LOL!!


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Yep, looks like both the grey babies are males, spots only on the outer wingfeathers. So it seems I may have a boy that makes things easy like yours does. One other question though, would these male babies also carry lutino and cinnamon do you think?


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## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

The babies are gorgeous The male babies could be split to cinnamon, lutino, or both, or neither.

1.0 natural /cinnamon-ino 
x 0.1 natural 

% from all 1.0 
1.5% 1.0 natural /cinnamon 
48.5% 1.0 natural /ino-cinnamon 
1.5% 1.0 natural /ino 
48.5% 1.0 natural


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## WestCoast (Jan 25, 2013)

Thanks so much for the info 

Update: Marvin went to his new home today, kinda bittersweet to see him go, but he had a new young blonde (lutino) wife when he arrived there and she jumped right up on the perch next to him. She's a little forward it seems but so far they seem to be happy together.


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