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Posted by rhoward on March 24, 2003 at 10:52:29:

Justan, I've read most of the posts today and it seems that much information has been given/received. You noted that you have some knowledge, so that's good. About the only thing I wanted to discuss is at the basic level and is about the two sets of babies you have. We've raised many babies, several from day one. I've found without fail that babies left with their parents for feeding (if the parents can/will feed) are better nurished than babies that have had to be hand fed from day one. The parents feeding includes many nutriants that are not reproduced in formula (we use Exact), hence those babies can be larger, stronger and appear to develop generally faster. Hand fed babies from day one can be smaller (but that goes away over time), but seem to suffer no other problems that don't rapidly disappear. We have two males that we had to hand feed from day one and both are small (one actually weighs only 69 grams at 1 1/2 years old) but both are active in our flock and one (closer to normal weight) has already mated and had a clutch of 5 lovely and healthy babies. Hand feeding from about 2-3 weeks on is generally routine and beneficial for the mated pairs health and the babies develop normally from that stage. Once the babies have feathered out, warmth is relative, it is drafts you need to be concerned about. We keep our cockatiels at around 70-75 degrees, that's our temperature in the house. One day olds we normally place in a warming container (we don't use brooders, we use small plastic aquariums lined with paper towels and shredded kleenex in a cardboard box to keep in the warmth) on a heating pad around 85 +/- until feathered out then into a small cage for awhile. It works fine. Seed does not contain nutriants, only fat, so it is more desirable to have fresh shredded veg's and cooked brown rice mixed with some peas and corn always available for the parents to eat while feeding. Hope this helps, Ron

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