Red-eared waxbills fledged

[MariusStegmann]

Yesterday, my 2 little red-eared waxbills decided to jump the nest. The one is still very small and can't fly. Last night, I decided to catch them and put them back into the nest, but to no avail. They screamed blue murder and didn't want to stay put. In the next door aviary, my mystery chicks turned out to be 4 cherryfinches. 2 Very small and 2 decent size ones.

[Stuart whiting]

Fantastic MariusStegmann

A big well done to yer on the breeding of yer waxbills and not forgetting yer cherries

Yep unfortunately that's a well know accurance with waxbills that once they jump nest it's virtually impossible to place em back in the nest,

What some of us tend to do is place a heat lamp close to the floor of the avairy positioned just above a couple of low perches or a small bush just so the fledglings can clamber up off the floor and sit comfortably under the lamp for the night,
The parents will continue to still feed em during the day and if they can manage to be ok for the next few more nights they'll then start to fly more confidently and shouldn't be long before they are weaned

Incidentally what did yer rear yer waxbills on, did they take much live food ?

Hope all goes well mate,

Be lucky

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann

I love the little fellow in the middle picture . He is so so cute.

It looks like you are on the baby train this year Marius, with lots of beautiful babies. Congratulations!!!

[MariusStegmann]

Stuart whiting@lovezebs Thx Elana, they are just so unbelievably small. Really tiny little blighters.
Stuart, I have actually seen that the chicks go back into the nest to sleep. I just put the little one that can't really fly near the nest and the chicks go in by themselves. Obviously they just don't want me to put them in the nest. I put out two 5 liter icecream containers that I filled up with overripe fruit and vegetable peals. This attracts a lot of fruit-flies that the waxbills catch and feed to the chicks. I also give meelworms 3 times a day. Stuart, I live in darkest Africa, I don't put in heating lamps. They are tough little buggers. I have successfully raised 9 red-eared chicks already to adulthood without loosing any after fledging. I have only lost a few waxbills in the nest, abandoned by the parents when I didn't know about the chicks and the fruit in the fruit-bowl dried up. Ie no fruitflies. Also no meelworms.

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann

My little Waxbills, would sit around the container of flightless fruitflies waiting for the flies to come popping out of the container and nail them . It's amazing how fast tbey can be when hunting.

[Stuart whiting]

MariusStegmann

Hi Mate,

Yes yer absolutely right that waxbills will go back into the nest but it's very difficult to try and place em back yerself, you've no doubt tried it as I also have over the years and it's practically useless in trying,

I see that yer very much into using fruit fly, this is my no 1 live food that I personally like to use and I have several large tubs in my avairy all of the time throughout the summer months whilst I'm breeding me waxbills,

I'll fill up each tub half full with folded news paper and then put loads of chopped banana on top of the paper and fill the tubs till about 2 inches below be the rim of the tubs, I then place 1/2 x 1/2 inch mesh on top of all of the tubs so the birds can't eat the rotting banana,

I generally replace the tubs with fresh banana about every 2-3 weeks in a sort of rotation so I've always got a constant supply of fruit fly within me avairy,

Aswell as feeding the fruit fly I also feed pinkies " small maggots " which I buy from the fishing trade and clean em through for 2-3 days before feeding to me birds,

Me birds will start to use the maggots to rear their young when the youngsters are about 4-5 days old onwards but from the time as soon as the young birds hatch it will be numerous amount of fruit fly

Be lucky

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann

How are the babies doing?

[MariusStegmann]

lovezebs The chicks are now fully fledged adults. This is now only 2 months since they fledged and they have been wearing their big boy pants (adult plumage) for almost a month now. Have a look.

[lovezebs]

MariusStegmann

They are beautiful!

I love the way they're posing for the photo in the second picture .

At this rate, you might have to build another aviary .

[MariusStegmann]

lovezebs Unfortunately these little ones are going to go to a WhatsApp friend of mine a thousand km away.