"Fledge", "Wean", "Socialize" baby birds  ~ Judy Brumley

       When a clutch of babies are between two weeks and three weeks old,  most cockatiel breeders for pet cockatiels, take babies from the parents to 'hand feed' them with a pre-formulated mix with hot water added to it, to the recommended consistency to about 8 weeks old.
       For hand-feeding 2 week olds, I usually feed (with a 12cc curved syringe), 6 cc's of formula every 3-4 hours.. (increasing to 12-15cc's). The formula should be fed close to the internal temperature of a bird's body (104 degrees). We have between 100 degrees and 109 degrees temperature we have to stay within. At 100 degrees the chick uses precious body heat to digest the food aggravating a slow crop, 110 degrees will scald the babies crop. The babies are kept very warm, 90 TO 92 degrees until feathers open and fed on a schedule determined by their age. 
      Hand-feeding guarantees a baby bird gets handled enough that it will become used to it,  learns to trust, and  later will bond to a human for a companion.  Day 1 chicks to 2 week old chicks are more tedious to care for and hand-feed, and chicks don't take to hand-feeding if they are much over 3 weeks old,  they try to keep their beak closed and just don't want to cooperate with you.  So-o- that is where the time frame of between 2 and 3 weeks comes from.  The chicks eyes are opened and the little crest buds are there on it's head too.
Some hand tame cockatiel pairs allow the handling of their chicks and putting them back in their  nest, if so the chicks don't have to be taken away from the parents. Hand-feedings can be given to the chicks just to help out parents with a large clutch to feed as well.  Many breeders let parent birds raise their chicks because the chicks will benefit in many ways for future breeding birds, also the parenting skills won't be lost over time, from human interference generation after generation.
      You need not buy a costly brooder and incubator incubator when beginning a breeding program, but you must supply cleanliness and the proper temperatures of food and environment. Because raising birds is not an exact science, tips and advise from fellow breeders will prove as valuable. HAND-FEEDING CHART
Hold the baby cockatiel with your left hand and feed with your right hand.  It is very important to insert the tip of the syringe or pipette into the left side of it's mouth pointing to it's right side of it's throat - to keep formula "from going down the wrong tube". When the baby knows to pump and swallow it will get easier.  With the baby facing you, his LEFT is YOUR right. Make sure you don't overfill the crop so it comes up into the neck. Avoid getting the crop so full it is over-stretched, which potentially add to crop emptying problems and we want to have an empty crop before the next feeding.  Watch how you feed the chicks. If you always push the tiny, soft beak over to one side during the feedings, this can cause beaks to develop a curve, the upper beak growing sideways.

"WEAN"...age 4+ weeks old is a critical stage for the hand - feeder is during the stage when a baby bird's instinct tells it to slim down to fly.  In this stage, the babies mind is on getting airborne and eating is put "on hold".  Some hand-feedings will be refused.  A chick can lose 10 -15% of it's peak weight to fledge the nest. Hand-fed and parent raised babies are still very dependent at this age. They still want and need a full crop at nightfall.  Chicks are individual personalities and they don’t become independent at the same time,  and I don't want to force wean when they are 6 weeks old, even though many breeders will.  My average weaning time is 8 weeks, though it could be longer, because some chicks want to be "a baby" longer.  When the chicks are feathered and ready to perch, they need to be moved from the brooder to a cage.  A cage for babies,  requires openings between the wires be too narrow for the young birds to put their heads through and always need wires running horizontally to climb up to a perch.

"FLEDGE" is FLIGHT, A bird's basic life skill. Allow the babies to fly before trimming their flight feathers.
At around 5 weeks old, while you are trying to hand-feed them, you have to keep a hand on them to hold them down! Like when your human baby is learning to walk, these babies try to fly and can injure themselves. A wing trim, when properly done, should result in a bird having just enough flight feathers left to (hopefully) break it's fall, but at the same time is unable to gain speed and altitude in flight.
Mastering the basic life skill of flight gives a bird confidence, and self assurance.
It would be easier for me to clip the flight feathers before the babies ever get airborne, but I personally want to let them have a good fly - once or twice before wing trimming.  It can be quite a circus in the house with a baby cockatiel or two loose trying to use their wings!  I wait until evening and take a few precautions for instance,  they won't head into a window pane in the evening and I can pull drapes more. 

"SOCIALIZE".  Well socialized baby birds get used to different sights, sounds and new people before leaving the breeder.  Socialization varies from bird breeder to breeder. 

INSTRUCT CHILDREN on holding because if the baby bird's wings have a severe clip, or in new fledgling stage, it could crash to the ground, breaking or badly bruise it's leg. Chipping it's keel bone (breast bone) can cause INTERNAL bleeding, and eventual death.

Thinking of buying a baby bird and finish hand-feeding it? Don't be talked into a crash course on hand-feeding. A good breeder can raise a loving, sweet bird who will quickly bond to you and become part of your family flock. You do not need to take on the risky, sometimes extremely difficult task of hand-feeding.