You can use slice timing in NIFTI files, and NIFTI format files can end in ".hdr", ".nii" or ".nii.gz". Use nifti_tool to modify the dataset and change the slice_code field if you want. That field is described at this link:
[
nifti.nimh.nih.gov]
[
nifti.nimh.nih.gov]
But you really don't need to change or add a field if you specify the slice timing pattern with "-tpattern" to 3dTshift. 3drefit can modify the header information of AFNI format datasets to add or change slice timing information. See these previous links for more information:
[
afni.nimh.nih.gov]
<[
afni.nimh.nih.gov];
[
afni.nimh.nih.gov]
<[
afni.nimh.nih.gov];
Most AFNI commands work with NIFTI format, but not all of them (notably adwarp, align_epi_anat.py and a few others). You may be better off switching to AFNI format for part of the processing and switching back to NIFTI when you need it with 3dAFNItoNIFTI, 3dcopy or a NIFTI prefix with another command.