Cockatiel chick

[SandraK]

I have a 3 day old cockatiel chick which isn't anything special in itself. What IS very strange is that instead of having yellow fuzz all over its body it looks pink with 2 yellow fuzzy racing stripes down its back.

I don't want to mess with the nest box too much, both parents are sitting and taking turns diligently. I'll try to take pix tomorrow when their watch changes but has anybody else seen chicks with similar markings?

 

[Marloz]

What mutations are the parents?

 

[TikiMyn]

That is odd! Perhaps you have Some new mutation

 

[tielluver]

my birds have 3 babies that were hatched in late 2016. they had yellow fuzz (I heard all cockatiels have yellow fuzz (actually down feathers) when very young. the pink is probably the skin. I remember one of mine having the skin showing and the yellow fuzz was kind of in 2 long stripes, on the back. on my bird the fuzz filled in on other areas within about a week or so. also, the parents will preen the baby which makes those feathers spread out. they may be laying flat. the babies will quickly learn to preen themselves. you may notice as your birds' regular feathers start to grow in, they also may grow in a kind of striped manner on the back and wings. I was surprised at mine, woke up one morning and I thought 2 of them (normal greys) both got a big bruise on top of their heads. I realized after a while it was their crest feathers started to grow in, they looked like mohawks at first. my lutino is all yellow, her crest is yellow so it was not noticed right away. I did not have a nest box, never intended to breed, stupid me did not realize eggs may be fertile. so, it was easy to see them develop and grow. it's a fascinating thing, watching them grow. I did not interfere with parents taking care of them when very young except sometimes when I looked in on them a baby was standing on the cage floor by himself, I gently pushed the baby back to a parent, who sat on baby right away. they need to be kept warm by parents for a while.

 

[SandraK]

I have pix - the baby still has two "racing stripes". Mom is a yellow face cinnamon and dad is a yellow face dark tiel (possibly normal). Will try to upload pix but have been having problems thanks to Microsquash and their darn "security" updates.

 

[SandraK]

my birds have 3 babies that were hatched in late 2016. they had yellow fuzz (I heard all cockatiels have yellow fuzz (actually down feathers) when very young. the pink is probably the skin. I remember one of mine having the skin showing and the yellow fuzz was kind of in 2 long stripes, on the back. on my bird the fuzz filled in on other areas within about a week or so. also, the parents will preen the baby which makes those feathers spread out. they may be laying flat. the babies will quickly learn to preen themselves. you may notice as your birds' regular feathers start to grow in, they also may grow in a kind of striped manner on the back and wings. I was surprised at mine, woke up one morning and I thought 2 of them (normal greys) both got a big bruise on top of their heads. I realized after a while it was their crest feathers started to grow in, they looked like mohawks at first. my lutino is all yellow, her crest is yellow so it was not noticed right away. I did not have a nest box, never intended to breed, stupid me did not realize eggs may be fertile. so, it was easy to see them develop and grow. it's a fascinating thing, watching them grow. I did not interfere with parents taking care of them when very young except sometimes when I looked in on them a baby was standing on the cage floor by himself, I gently pushed the baby back to a parent, who sat on baby right away. they need to be kept warm by parents for a while.

It it's any consolation, tiels will lay eggs in any dark corner they can find - nest box or not. When I was an innocent about tiels, mine laid eggs at the bottom of a paper bag between cages that had straw finger traps and chewable toys in it. I moved the whole bag into the bottom of a cage so the parents had a little more privacy and a space of their own.

 

[tielluver]

wow, that is something. mine do lay eggs in one corner of the cage, and the back of cage is always covered because it's close to a window and I don't want them to get a draft. right now I have started to remove a fake egg every other day, because they have lost interest in eggs. they sat on them about 3 weeks.

 

[finchly]

My tiels have not laid eggs, however there was a canary egg laying on top of a cage a couple days ago. And Jazz (Gouldian) had about 15 nest boxes to choose from, he chose a Kleenex box laying on top of a cage. He’s working hard on it. His mate died, i do not see a hen around him at all. He’s just building.

 

[Begone]

Will try to upload pix but have been having problems thanks to Microsquash and their darn "security" updates.

You can email them to me if that would be easier, and I will post them here for you.

And congrats to babies.

 

[SandraK]

I checked on the baby - he's the only one who hatched - he definitely still has 2 stripes down his back. I'll try to get better pix today and post them.

 

[cassiesdad]

We never had baby tiels..either from buying them, or Mom and Dad producing them...so I'm interested in seeing your "racing" babies.

And you're right about tiels laying eggs everywhere...Ziggy produced three clutches of nine eggs total...none of them in the nesting material we provided. She'd even root the material away from the cage corner to then lay her eggs there.

That made it hard for daddy Igor to sit on the eggs...they'd just roll away from him all the time...

 

[Begone]

And here are Sandra's female and the chick.
I did edit the pics, if you prefer the original Sandra, just tell me and I will upload them instead.

 

[SandraK]

First pic is mom and second & third are dad and baby. I check every morning and baby hasn't changed other than growing and still with 2 stripes.

 

[SandraK]

I think I may have another baby pic but I know that I have a mom pic in her full "I will rip your throat out" mode when I spooked her. I'll get them posted asap.

 

[cassiesdad]

The little does have stripes...how cute!

 

[WendyN]

Sooo cute!

 

[iamwhoiam]

Very interesting the way she/he is feathering. Does look like 2 stripes.

 

[Birdbabe]

precious little baby!

 

[rocky'smom]

Ok time to given that yellow puffball a name, how about Pinstripe, or Racer, or Charger.

 

[SandraK]

Very interesting the way she/he is feathering. Does look like 2 stripes.

I'd figured that I'd post the photo only to find that he'd be filled in but it's still two stripes. Most chicks are just little fuzzy balls. @Marloz Any thoughts now that you can see pix of mom & dad?