Blue-capped Cordon Bleu Waxbill

To date its been sufficiently mature birds (18 months plus), which have been successful parent-rearers

At a year old, good, fertile, potential fostering eggs tend to be laid in the nest and incubated, but chicks tend to be tossed

If too well fed, hens may start laying at 8 months.  These eggs tend to be infertile, laid anywhere and are rarely incubated

To minimise chances of young chicks being tossed by sufficiently mature cocks, do not feed any livefood during incubation

Once there are chicks, Tony Jochem in his book 'Breeding Estrildid Finches' advises that feeding Pinkies overstimulates even sufficiently mature cocks, so that chicks are tossed

Buffalo worms for the first 10 - 12 days seem to work well

Six grams a day worked very nicely with a nest of 6 chicks

Tony Jochem's 4 - 6 hours of soaking seed for the rearing food feels better than the boiled-seed method, as vitamins are retained

The smaller seeds that many Continentals now use in rearing food and dry seed mix makes sense as suiting small waxbill chicks.   They should be included in the rearing food mix

Although less likely to be looking nest inspecting when parent-rearing than fostering, better to stop peeking at chicks as they near full feather from days 13 or 14 onwards

You might induce a 'burst' and the weakest/ youngest could suffer.   If you see fewer waxbills to the perch than when you last inspected prior to fledging, try not to look in the nest

The smallest/ weakest will 'burst' and an extra day in the nest can be the difference between surviving or not

Waxbills may be weaned at 16 days but with parent-rearing there is no hurry

After a while the cock will want the chicks to move away if he wants to breed again.   He will start to harrass them, gently at first.   It doesn't get serious suddenly

When weaned, don't transfer from a small breeding cage to an aviary in one giant leap

Try an intermediate week or two in a medium cage and work up to bigger things

When transferrig the chicks make sure seed and water is very obvious, preferably of the same size and in the same position as the cage or flight in which they were bred

Any unpaired adult bird can help the settling in process, although this is a 'nice to have' rather than necessary

Young waxbills are generally very competent

Useless information.   The beak changes from black to 'pink' a month after fledging.  First moult is at just under 3 months