Female Pin Tailed Whydah Question

[w.l.]

The bird police (my husband...LOL!) will be going with me to the show. I'm sure there will be no more birds added to the aviary for a little bit.

Reducing your huge number of canaries by 17 or 19 to 2-3 pairs might make your husband more lenient about adding a few waxbills and whydah hens.

[Shannylee]

w.l. HAHA! That is the plan!

[Stuart whiting]

I would much rather buy from the breeders directly

To be realistic, I think your chances of finding whydahs that are actually captive-bred are very, very low - they are very hard to breed due to their parasitic nesting behaviour.
And if you did find some that are captive-bred, chances are they would be young, not adults in breeding condition, so unless they are already DNA-sexed, you will have a hard time picking females again.
If buying wild-caught birds, I personally prefer buying freshly imported ones rather than ones sold by someone who has been keeping them for a while. The latter may have been kept in poor housing and on poor diet for a long time, are often sold as they have failed to breed, and who knows how old they are? Freshly imported wild-caught birds are never too old and may even still be in breeding condition.

But attending such an event is fun anyway, and I will not be surprised if you come home with something other than whydahs.
Just do at least a quick online research before buying anything on impulse - the last thing your aviary needs now is more bullies!

Absolutely agree Laszlo, I agree here 100 % , very well said

[Stuart whiting]

Shannylee

Come to think of it, what you should look out for on the mart are some Common Waxbills! They are the host species of pin-tailed whydahs so could come handy if you ever decided to try and breed them, but in the meantime they are a lovely species in their own right and quite unlike anything you have now.
Ideally you should have several pairs if you are ever planning to use them to host the whydahs, but they should be cheap.

Very well thought of, again I have to fully agree with you Laszlo

[Stuart whiting]

w.l. HAHA! That is the plan!

quality, I like it,.....in reality that very much so would make sense, that's definitely what I'd do,

More Waxbills