My First Cordon Bleu Babies! Im Anxious!

[Annabelle]

Hello everyone,
I have acquired a pair of Red Cheeked Cordon Bleus not that long ago and now they are behaving in a very odd manner. I have also heard very tiny squeaks coming from the nest basket they have been building in so I reckon they have had some recent hatchings. Since I have put the nest basket in there I have left it alone so I had no idea that they even had eggs.
I have heard a few things through asking around about these birds being nervy and inclined to abandon thier nest for a variety of reasons so Im trying to cover all the bases to help them make thier first hatching a success. They have laid eggs before with thier previous owner but were unable for various reasons to hatch the eggs (I suspect that the previous owner didnt research the birds properly and missed some vital ingredient and Im trying not to make that mistake).
This little pair are in a cage that I made from an old wall oven cabinet. The sides, floor and roof are solid and the back and front are very small wire mesh. The cage is outside on my mum's veranda in the back corner with the wire back and one side against the wall. I have a large branch from a non-toxic tree in there as the perches and I have animal grade pine shavings as the floor covering. I gave them swamp grass as nesting material.
The cage also contains two female Chinese Painted Quail and a male Diamond Dove.
Thier nest basket is one of those domed bamboo finch baskets and its hanging on the front wire. I hung a folded handtowel in front of the basket to provide them with extra privacy and cut the drafts.
I am giving them a softfood mix of egg & biccie as well as a formulated insectivore and granivore mix (the wildlife rescue service in the area uses it to raise abandoned birdlife that they rescue).
So this is what I am doing for them. Is there anything else I should be doing to ensure they raise thier babies successfully? This is my first time breeding finch type birds at all so Im a little anxious. The only other birds I have successfully bred have been the aforementioned Quail. I dont reckon they would be very similar. One good thing is that my little pair seem to be fairly comfortable with me and mum and have even perched on my hand when Im changing food and water. Even so we have kept our prescence near the cage to an absolute minimum cause they tend to get cranky when we go near it lately, especially the male.
I'll stop waffling now. I'll be grateful for any help anyone can give me and any tips. Thanx!

[Hilary]

I'd say just keep doing what you're doing!! Two of my red cheek pairs have hatched about 5 clutches total this season and tossed every single chick (or just starved them), so I'm anxious to get tips from YOU!

[Annabelle]

Its sad when that happens, I had a wretched time with my Diamond Doves unable to even hatch thier eggs and they would get so upset, I could cry sometimes. Its good to know im on the right track though. Ill wait and see if my methods are successful before I start giving out advice. The formula sounds so simple when you see it on websites (plenty of live food and greens and lots of privacy) but from experience, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. One thing I have noticed though is that my little birds seem to prefer eating the quail food than thier own. I put Turkey Starter in the quail food cause they need more protien being a game bird and the little waxbills have been consuming it at an amazing rate! It might be worth a try if insects are not readily available.

[Hilary]

I hadn't thought of that! I also have quail (buttons), and have noticed that the finches love to eat their food. The breeding cbs are not in with quail, though. I'll give them a little of the button food (I just use the gamebird starter) and see if that helps - thanks!

[pon]

The only thing I would note would be to watch the quail if one of the finches ever toss their eggs! Our female quail will turn around and eat her eggs as soon as she lays it, and has also eaten one of our diamond dove's eggs.
._. ... She's a bit of a cannibal, but I hear that's typical of button quail if they get a taste of egg & shell.

[Annabelle]

Thanx for that. I'll certainly keep an eye on them. My little quail are actually broody atm and the both of them are sitting on a huge pile of infertile eggs. Im letting them go so that they can have a break from laying. Im not sure if that will effect how they will react if a tiny white egg lands on thier turf from above but I'll definately bee keeping my eye on them and tell mum to as well.

[Sally]

That is great that your RCCBs have gone to nest so quickly. And it doesn't sound like you are feeding any live food. My pair of RCCBs lined a nest and started sitting, but they just picked at the mealies I offered them. I thought they didn't need them, but suddenly they want TONS of mealies, and already tossed one baby. It was so tiny, it must have just been a day old--I don't know how people handfeed anything that small! Anyway, I've upped their mealies, plus they have eggfood, dry insectivore food, white worms--my gosh, what we go thru to get these guys to give us some babies! Good luck with yours, and keep us posted.

[Annabelle]

Well, my little babies are probably around 12 days old now and I havent seen a pitched baby yet. I had a scare the other day cause when I got to mums neither of the parents were on the nest and I wasnt hearing any peeping. I talked to mum about it and she said she didnt check on them much the day before so she couldnt be sure they were on the nest then either. It was a warm day but I really wanted to see if there were any live babies in there so I used a hand mirror at the opposite wall of the aviary to check the nest and I could see little fluffy moving balls!
The second I took the mirror out the daddy was up in the nest talking to his babies and making sure they were ok. I finally found a shop that sells mealies and bought some. Im setting up a culture tomorrow. I put some in the cage yesterday and both little birds went nuts on them and the babies got so excited that you could hear thier voices from inside the house. By the sounds of the different voices I at least have 2 chicks, possibly 3 but I cant be sure cause I couldnt count them properly through the mirror.
I have named the parents as well finally. The male is Talen and the female is Flute (names from a fantasy book). Its all so exciting!

[Annabelle]

Well, my little babies are probably around 12 days old now and I havent seen a pitched baby yet. I had a scare the other day cause when I got to mums neither of the parents were on the nest and I wasnt hearing any peeping. I talked to mum about it and she said she didnt check on them much the day before so she couldnt be sure they were on the nest then either. It was a warm day but I really wanted to see if there were any live babies in there so I used a hand mirror at the opposite wall of the aviary to check the nest and I could see little fluffy moving balls!
The second I took the mirror out the daddy was up in the nest talking to his babies and making sure they were ok. I finally found a shop that sells mealies and bought some. Im setting up a culture tomorrow. I put some in the cage yesterday and both little birds went nuts on them and the babies got so excited that you could hear thier voices from inside the house. By the sounds of the different voices I at least have 2 chicks, possibly 3 but I cant be sure cause I couldnt count them properly through the mirror.
I have named the parents as well finally. The male is Talen and the female is Flute (names from a fantasy book). Its all so exciting!

[Annabelle]

OMG! Sooooo upset! My little birds had laid 5 eggs but only 2 hatched and now we have none. I think it must be getting too cold for the babies cause both babies were thrown outta the nest today and they were both dead. I dont think it was the parents fault because they were doing soo well up to this point and they seemed upset and were looking around for thier babies. Both babies were about this long ( ) and their crops were full which suggests that the parents were feeding them. Plus, mum said they both went to sit on the babies last night and the mum was in there this morning. The babies didnt have any wounds either so I can only think that it got too cold for them in the wicker basket and they died or were dying by the time the parents pitched them.
Im going to leave the nest basket out and reduce (or in the case of the softfood stop) the extra food items to try and discourage breeding till it warms up again as we r just coming into winter weather now.
Even my quail have stopped being broody so it definately not good weather for baby birdies.
I had a talk to Talen and Flute and told them that we would do it right next time and 5 mins later he was displaying with a feather so I went back and told him that its the wrong time for it. Flute didnt seem very receptive any way (I think she agrees with me) and he stopped after a few minutes.
Its sooo disappointing cause I think they could have reared thier babies quite well if it was the right weather for it.

[Sally]

So sorry for your loss. It is hard to have them coming along and then all goes wrong. But Cordon Bleus have a reputation of tossing their babies, they have frustrated many experienced breeders, even. I have a pair of Red-Cheeked Cordon Bleus which are on their first clutch. They recently tossed one, but still visited the nest and were eating tons of mealies, so I did take a peek two days ago (shame on me!). Anyway, their nest is so deep, I really couldn't see well all the way into it, thought it was empty, when I finally realized something was moving around in there. It is probably only one baby, and they are still taking care of it, but I hold my breath every time I check the cage. It is harder to breed in the wintertime, as CBs do require warm temps. It will be good to give them a break and wait for warmer weather.

[L in Ontario]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. It seemed to have been going so well for a while there. Better luck next time. Chalk it up to a learning experience for them.

[Hilary]

Oh, Annabelle, I'm sorry! CBs are such little buggers.

[Annabelle]

Thanx guys,
It was definately a learning experience for me and the birds and I really think we can have some success next time around when spring and warmer weather hits again. They really did seem disappointed that it didnt go well and they did manage to get thier babies bout halfway (the chicks had thier pins on thier wings) so im not going to class them as bad parents. I also Have a mealie culture set up so next time I will have a certain source of livefood from the outset. I have made a list of things I can change throughout winter (or add) to increase the chance of success next time (like putting a second nest basket in a more sheltered, private spot in case they would prefer that one.). I probably needed this prep time anyway to make sure I have everything I (and they) need.