This is a picture of the parent cockatiels.
On the left is Sweetie the female, and on the right is Santa the male.
Sweetie is a normal gray pied cockatiel. Santa is a white face cockatiel.
Sweetie laid the first egg on 6/5/2000.
A total of 8 eggs were laid in the nest box. It took about 2 weeks for her to lay all the eggs.
The first egg was hatched on 6/28/2000.
Look closely for a baby in the picture. When first out of the egg, the baby is just over an inch long.
We took the baby birds from their parents when they were about 2 weeks old.
The babies have just been fed by us for the first time. Do they look content to you?
The first two babies are lutino or yellow cockatiels. This means that the father has a hidden lutino gene or is considered a split to lutino.
This picture was taken on 7/12/2000.
We pulled the third baby form the nest box on 7/14/2000. He was hatched on the 4th of July, so we have been calling him "Firecracker".
How cute!!!
The babies sleep together in an aquarium with a heating pad underneath to keep warm.
As you can see in this picture, the third baby's eyes are just starting to open.
This is how we feed the babies using a syringe. It is important the formula be not too hot or not too cold. The baby bird formula must be given at a temperature of 104 degrees F.
The two oldest birds have now been taken out of the incubator and given a bird cage. This picture was taken on 7/29/2000.
This is the first baby; he is now a little over 4 weeks old. This picture was taken on 7/29.
This is our youngest baby on 8/6/2000; he is now 4 weeks old. He is a white face, pearl, pied.
We call him Junior.
Baby number four is solid white. This is combination of lutino from one parent and white face from the other. This must mean that the female parent must be split to white face, as she can not carry a lutino gene because lutino is a sex linked trait and can only be carried as a split by the male.
Because the way the genes are linked, the two lutino birds and the white bird must be females.
All five babies on 8/8/2000.
