If you hatch the baby yourself, in an incubator, then you can send eggshells to IQ Bird testing. This way, you don't have to get a drop of blood from a tiny newborn baby, OR pluck 3 chest feathers, so much easier! If you didn't hatch the baby, Bird IQ says that silkies must be 4-6 weeks old if using chest feathers or blood. I called and asked them, because I don't want the same thing that you were talking about with getting attached to them and then having to get rid of them. We can't keep males either...
