Titan is two weeks old!

Please meet Titan, my Turquoise GCC chick. Long story short, his parents rejected him and his siblings, choosing to incubate the eggs and not feed the chicks. When the problem was discovered the remaining eggs were fostered to a different hen who had just started laying. The foster hen incubated the eggs, but would not brood the chicks so they had to be pulled day one. I lost three chicks under the mother (Who so violently protected her nest that the failure to thrive was not noted in time to save them) and failed two attempts at keeping "day one" chicks alive. But for some reason Titan, the first to be pulled, has not only survived but seems to be thriving. I waited a while to post about him because the loss of his siblings was crushing, and because the fear of losing him has remained great, however I would like to introduce him now. So here he is.


Day One, Titan weighed less than a gram. For comparison, my husband's traditional gold wedding band, on the small side, weighs 8 grams. He was so tiny I had to touch him by sight, and not by feel.



Here he is at a few days old with a full crop. The pink color in the back ground is from the heat lamp I fed him under at first.



Tired baby!


Baby birds are not pretty.



Growing like a weed! He is two weeks old now, and opened his eyes today! The dark color is also coming in on his legs and beak



And these are his parents.

So beautiful! Turquoise is such a lovely variation. Gccs are wonderful birds. I hope to have a turquoise gcc at some point. Gcc personalities won me over! Congrats on saving this little one

Beautiful Dani!!!!! lol who says baby birds aren't cute?? He'll be a stunner

Hats off, Dani! You are doing one MARVELOUS job with this baby!! :emoticonc

I would have been terrified to handle/feed such a wee one, just because I've got shovels for hands.:32:

And look how he/she is thriving in your loving care! AMAZING!!

That's fantastic !! thanks for sharing Neat to be involved with things that young.

What a gorgeous little baby. Well done you for being such a good surrogate mum. I raised a neigbours chick from 4 days old many years ago, so i know just how much hard work it is. Keep the photos coming!

Awww, Dani! Titan is precious! I can only imagine such an undertaking, I would be all thumbs with that tiny little creature. It's wonderful to see him thrive under your expert care. Looking forward to watching him grow. His parents are stunning.

Trust me, it IS terrifying! He is doing well though and gaining weight like crazy! He now moves around his brooder and chooses new spots to lay instead of staying where I set him. He also is looking around much more

Oh that's so incredible, keep posting pictures, it's amazing!!

Titan is adorable! You are doing an amazing job with him, are you going to be able to let him go?

Great job!

Go Titan!

Amazing. So small

Thanks everyone, he is so amazing to watch! And no, I won't be letting him go. It has always been my plan to keep my first GCC baby, which Titan is; I just didn't plan on having to feed him from such a small size or on losing his brothers and sisters.

He has started to preen his tiny little pin feathers! I will try to get another picture up soon!

Dang it, my computer wont let the pictures come up! please post some more, maybe those will open up. I'm dying to see a baby turq GCC! I love the name Titan. Did you name him after the Titan Missile or because he is a strong little warrior?

Wow. They grow fast.

How precious Titan is Dani . The day old pic is... I'm lost for words to describe how tiny and cute!! Amazing how delicate they are. As you say you had to touch him "by sight" not feel at first. So delicate they can get seriously injured just by "touching" them too hard, wow.

I'm sorry about the other babies . Thank you so much for sharing this. It's not everyday that many of us get to see this even in pics.

I often don't share some of the more joyous parts of breeding because I don't want to encourage people to dive into it, and I often don't share more of the heart breaking things because they are morbid and sad, but with Titan I just couldn't resist sharing. I named him Titan because he was so tiny I needed to give him a strong name. I named another of the Hero, but I lost that one the third attempt didn't live long enough to be named. I'm still investigating, but I suspect something missing in the diet of the parents when the eggs were layed, or something like that. I am still wracking my brain how I can lose two and a third thrives when I did everything the same each time.

very cool stuff for sure! nice job!

What a cutie!!