He's definitely pearl, possibly pied. Not lutino or cinnamon--his eyes are black, not red. Pale yellow down could be a whiteface or pastelface split (I would assume whiteface, as I suspect at least one parent carries whiteface and I don't know where pastelface genes would come from).

He's started rocking and hissing when I look in on him. He'll hop on into my hand, but my face is terrifying to him! I'm curious when I can introduce him to the other birds--I want him well-socialized with other birds, especially as he's an only child. I was thinking as soon as he's started to fledge?

I forgot to post--I opened the egg that died. The chick was perfectly formed but very tiny, like took up only half the egg. Had long yellow down and was in hatching position, but was really really small. I think it must not have had enough space in the egg and smothered because the air cell was so big, or possibly there was some lethal mutation that didn't show itself until late in incubation. Or the cause was low humidity, but I'm still shocked the humidity was low given the high reading in the room and the frequent bathing of the parents. There was no smell or sign of an infection. A little googling says that a B vitamin deficiency can cause dwarfism--maybe that's what happened?

I don't know what happened with the egg that died. Maybe there wasn't enough yolk and albumin in the egg to start out with, so there weren't enough nutrients to support the embryo to hatch. But to be honest the surviving baby's growth rate is also quite low - babies usually gain a gram or two in the first day after hatch and the rate accelerates after that. I don't want to alarm you and maybe it's just because he got off to a rough start. He's certainly getting good nutrition now on the handfeeding formula.

It's fascinating that he's hissing at you. My babies always hiss at me, but I thought it was because they were used to being tended by mom and dad and they knew I wasn't one of them. I figured a baby that was handfed from day one would be more or less imprinted on humans and wouldn't do this, but it looks like I was wrong! Since you're his sole source of food it shouldn't take long for him to stop hissing and start adoring you.

You can let him see the other birds from a distance right now, but don't let them interact with him unless you're confident that it won't be hostile. We want him to LIKE other birds, not think that they're scary and dangerous.

Yeah, he's finally gaining now for the past four days, but yesterday he only gained two grams. He's starting to get a full mL of formula (broke 10 grams in the middle of the night), and he's starting to look bigger every time it's time to feed. Fingers crossed he's finally taking off! Pippin eats her veggies and mashes well but doesn't eat pellets as well as I'd like, so I wouldn't put it past her to have some sort of nutrient deficiency. Or possibly she and JJ just don't have good genetics together--they're definitely not related, but maybe they both carry some unsavory genes.

He doesn't hiss at my hands, only my face. Possibly he hasn't realized these are two parts of the same creature. Or maybe the way I loom and block out the light is just inherently intimidating to such a small creature.

Birds do have an instinctive fear of something passing above them because that's what hawks do. Your hand isn't too much different in size and shape from an adult cockatiel while your head is something else entirely lol.

His reaction is kind of opposite to what a full-grown bird would do. A lot of adult-sized birds are fearful of hands but don't mind your face and will accept scritches from your nose.

We've got pinfeathers!

No sign of feather growth 2 hours ago. I took a bit of a nap because I'm tired and it's Saturday so I can do that. Wake up, go to feed the chick, and he's the dark beginnings of feathers under his wings!

He may be small but he seems to be following the development schedule pretty well.

Took him to the vet yesterday--I just felt something was wrong, and he seemed like he regressed a bit. Vet ran tests--his bacteria is normal, his yeast is normal, no parasites, his insides feel right, his heart and lungs sound right, his crop feels right. Only problem is his crop is still worryingly slow, although not in stasis, and his growth is slow. He didn't gain any weight yesterday, probably because of the stress of the vet, but he's now to 16.5 grams.

Little dude makes me worry. Asked for some advice on AvianAvenue, and someone suggested feeding him a little more dilute fluid to try to get his digestion moving faster. I'll also be going and getting some probiotics, or Avian Enzyme if I can find Harrison's at the local bird store.

Awww--poor little bird. Hope he will start gaining weight again soon.

Well, he surprised me by jumping from 16.5 to 17.5 grams in the past four hours, so that's encouraging.

I also got some avian enzyme from the bird store--he just had his first feeding with it, we'll see if it helps.

He seems to be doing great. I can't wait for update pics