Ruby and Rose are quickly changing. I just picked them up five days ago. Where I could once pick them both up with one hand, it now takes two. They have real tail feathers and are growing feathers in a V–shape between their wings, in a human it would be between their shoulder blades. They still have a red spot on their beaks where their egg tooth used to be, but it’s getting fainter by the hour.
It makes me giggle to see how feathers grow. The chicks don’t look too shabby yet, but when chicks are covered in down and their big girl feathers start coming in, the new feathers are covered in a sheath, which pushes the downy feathers out, but stuck to the end of the new feathers. This gives the chicks a wild halo of downy feathers sticking out at differing lengths from their bodies. Would you say they look mottled? Scruffy? Covered in dust bunnies? They do look like they could use a good vacuuming.
They still aren’t certain they want to be picked up and held, but the trembling has subsided some. I’m hoping they will be happy to be handled before the grand-kids come over to meet them.