# hand taming?



## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

i have 4 chicks at the moment and i was wondering if its normal for them to hiss at me when i open up the nest box to handle them. also i handle them 2-4 times daily for about 10 minutes or more


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Yes its totally normal for them to hiss at you, they think it'll scare you away.


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

how old are the babes, mine are hand fed fro 14 days old and they usually hiss for the first week but then they realize im mommy now and stop.


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## leeisme (Feb 4, 2011)

i love that moment when they hear you coming with food. They just know. I get the warming water in a small glass and after I suck up the formula into the syringe, I tap it on the side of the glass. Its like ringing the dinner bell. They go absolutely bonkers! stepping on each other to get fed first.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

well im not hand feeding them im just handling them each day, also i forget the days that they hatched but i can tell you when they were laid:


march 24, 26, 28, 31


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

what are the parents i see clear flights on the oldest one so its pied but the youngest is to young to see, but the others could be split to pied, really cute babes, when did the eyes open.


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

okay so 18 days past march 24th puts you around april 11th-20th,so based on that your babes would be ranging in age of younest 14 days old- oldest23 days old(realize this is taking in the 18-21 day hatching rate)so the youngest could actually be 17 days old, but theres no way that oldest babe look like my youngest which is now 32 days old but i have included a picture of him at 17days , how many days inbetween hatches, did mom brood right away or after she laid the 3rd or 4th egg. below is a picture of my babe who hatched on the 2nd of april, it was taken on april 19th she was 17 days old


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

the male is a grey but i dont know if he has any spilts that i know of and the female is a Lutino maybe pearl hen. 

the second chick hatched the next day when the first hatched. third chick hatched i think 2 days later and fourth chick hatched 3 days later

also the pictures i posted were taken on monday and didn't have time to post them


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

okay so the youngest would still be 14 to 17 days old i did the 18-21 day hatch rate off of him cause most parents have started brooding before the last egg. so depending on the exact hatch rate would give you the ages for your babes, you say you took the pictures monday (which means your babe was 12 day- 15 days old, not much to go on, but if you want i can search through my archive to find a comparison picture of one of my babes at that age to help you better estimate ages, weight changes depending on the bird however theres physical markers that help tell us if a chick is behind in age, if you want to check out this site it has some awesome pictures (ignore weight, this is a large baby,lol)

http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/watch-me-grow.html

this shows you what your babe should look like at certain stages.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

well the hen started sitting right away when the first egg was laid. also what mutations are they?


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

the oldes judging by the wing flights is a pied and the others look to be split to pied if daddy is a normal grey does he have tick marks on the back of his head, the odd pink toe (these are signs of being split to pied) mom im assuming is not a lutino pearl she might be a lutino split to pied but pictures of the parents would really help, and the reason i say both are split to pied is it takes 2 pied genes to get a pied baby (1 from mom and 1 from dad) because pied is a ressesive mutation.


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

also do any of the other 3 babes show any clear flight feathers (the white feathers that the oldest has)


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

i will take pictures of the parents when i can and also the other babies do have white feathers.

also what do you mean by tick marks? but all he toes are the same color, there is no odd toe


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

tick marks- yellow or white odd feathers behind the crest usually, when you say all are same color are they all pink or all grey, if the babes all have white flights there all pieds.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

well the toes are all grey but a little pink-ish and there is no tick marks on the back of his head also.


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

well not all split to pied birds show it (but thats rare) but because your babes are pied he is split to it.


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## Eileen (Mar 11, 2011)

My baby was fed by his parents, but I handled him every day. For a while he didn't hiss, then he went through a hissing phase and then he eventually stopped hissing. He is 8 weeks old now and will step up onto my finger. The key is to keep handling them.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

here are the parents


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

and here are the babies


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

mom looks to be a lutino pied, and dad a normal grey, he's split to pied but doesnt show the normal split to pied tick marks on back of head , we know he's split because both have to carry to pied gene for you to get pied, both are beautiful,


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

here are a few pictures from today

im having a little trouble uploading the other photos


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

that youngest one still looks very behind developmentaly, it should have way more feather coverage by now, how thick of a formula are you giving them. also when you feed him how much are you giving if you can find the time before you feed him to weigh him with an empty crop get his weight you should be feeding him 10 percent of his body weight(40grams= 4cc's) you may need to give him an extra supplemental feeding making sure that each feeding is the 10% of his body weight for that day and then re weigh him the next day and thats the 10 pearcent that he gets for that day, and so on and so forth.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

they are being parent fed as i don't have time to hand feed them. but i am concern about that also. also every morning i make a small batch of nurti-start hand feeding formula for the parents to eat to give to the babies. they have seeds and egg food and broccoli.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

OK since the parents are feeding them and he's the youngest, you may need to do supplement feeds once or twice a day, as nwoodrow described. Its just that he's not getting enough nutrients because he's the youngest. You won't have to pull him for handfeeding or anything, but this will help with his development.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

here are new photos of the babies


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Oh wow look at them so adorable


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

Well I saw those babies and thought oh they are so cute.Then I realized I had seen them before. I just read your email and for sure want to trade a baby. I can't wait. It me Debbie. Lol Funny seeing you on here. This is a great site for help though. I use it all the time.


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## luffy3001 (Sep 1, 2010)

its normal they will do that the first couple days and realize your not going to hurt it so they give in 
good luck to your cockatiels


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## luffy3001 (Sep 1, 2010)

there going to be normal grey unless the male is split to something cute babies by the way


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

new photos of the babies and also the oldest one has left the nest box.

when will i be able to separate them from the parents?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

They're gorgeous but you can't separate them until they're fully weaned which is usually any time between 8 and 12 weeks of age, depending on the baby. They need to stay with the parents for now because Dad is supposed to show them where the food is and how to eat it and such.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

Here are new photos of the babies.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

So grown up!


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

and so cute


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

Yes very cute.


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## afrobboy (Apr 5, 2009)

can you tell what mutations they are, i know there pied but are they split to anything?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Some clear shots of their cheek patches would help us figure out if they're split to WF but other than that you'd have to breed them to find out.


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