Blue-capped Cordon Bleu Waxbill

Blue Capped Cordon Bleu Waxbill

(Blue capped Waxbills/ Blue headed Waxbills/ Cordon Bleu Waxbills)

Feeding

Nothing special for the Cordon Bleu Waxbills here either

Richard's seed mix which I also use is -
15kg – Foreign finch; 3kg – Panicum; 3kg – Japanese millet; 3kg – Red millet; 3kg – Plain canary; 2kg – Niger

grit, grated cuttlefish - always available & vitamins supplied

thawed frozen buffalo worms daily - some eat Pinkies
(UK frozen livefood mail order supplier - www.priorspetproducts)

Eggfood availability varies - depending what birds are up to ie breeding or resting - not sure composition matters - plus diced chicory
I now use a rearing mix based on that used by the very successful Paul de Nil

Paul de Nil's rearing food

Blue Capped Waxbills generally like this mix but some just pick out the Pinkies
and eat little of the eggfood - others can't get enough

below is the lazy man's guide to making this eggfood

Paul de Nil is one of Belgium's most successful Waxbill breeders
He attributes much of his success to his rearing food
He makes his in the most cost-effective manner starting with white bread and eggs
Although a little more expensive, it is even easier to start with your normal, eggfood

The weights of eggfood given are basd on dry Cede™
If you use a pre-moistened eggfood it is a bit denser
Perhaps increase the weight of pre-moistened eggfood added by say 20%

Item

Weight

Volume

1/4 Weight

your normal dry, seed mix (volume based on my foreign finch mix)

2Kg

3 litres/ 5 pints

500gm

boil seed (with 2 crumbled eggshells?) in tap water for 5 to 6 min's then rinse thoroughly in cold tapwater, drain

your normal, eggfood (my volume is based on Cede™)

1Kg

2.5 litres/ 4 pints

250gm

vitamins

8gm

1 heaped tblspn

2gm

granulated charcoal

20gm

3 tablespoons

5gm

frozen Pinkies (fly maggots) - 4% of weight of above mix
(UK mail order supplier - www.priorspetproducts.co.uk)

120gm

30gm

mix vitamins, charcoal and Pinkies with eggfood (plus pollen powder? see below)
then add eggfood (with mixed vitamins, charcoal & Pinkies) to drained, boiled seed and mix thoroughly

seal entire mix in plastic container(s) or sealed plastic bag(s) and freeze

take as much as you need for a week at a time and thaw
only experience will allow you to judge how much to thaw
thawed mix apparently can be kept in the fridge and used for up to a week as required
(3 days max. might be safer)

The seed mix

If you have several different types of bird then mix the seed accordingly
If you have Bullfinches which consume twice the amount of their seed than
your foreign finches then
mix two parts of your Bullfinch mix to one part of your foreign finch mix

if you have kept the shells of two hens eggs eaten recently you can bake or microwave them
crumble and add to the seed
(if grated cuttlefish or crumbled eggshell is always available this isn't necessary)

Adding 'lead' to the Waxbill cock's pencil/ conditioning

add pollen to the above mix to bring cocks into condition - DO NOT use mix with pollen once laying has commenced

pollen - powdered - (from health food shops)
(UK mail order supplier - www.bodykind.com)

1 tablespoon

1 level teaspoon

How often to use the mix?

initially use rearing food with pollen included once a week
then use twice a week - to bring birds into condition (perhaps for about 6 weeks)
STOP using for each pair as soon as eggs appear - for these birds use rearing food without the pollen - daily
give daily to youngsters until they moult

Paul de Nil recommends administering the rearing food once a day at 5pm

Why 5pm?
weaker/ smaller chicks tend to die during the night. This is often due to insufficient food gained versus their sibblings
5pm feed means the chicks get the best food from the fresh, full dish in the evening
this helps get weaker or smaller chicks through the 'critical' night

He mentions another benefit
Bengalese tend to settle in their boxes to roost quite early. This means a long night for chicks
when Bengalese are used to an evening feed they come out to eat
this means the chicks get a later and extra feed than they would otherwise have got

Go to the next page to see about - breeding - the Blue Capped Waxbill

Interested in Lavender Waxbills

This site has sound files to help determine gender

www.lavender-waxbill.com

If you are interested in parrot-finches please visit

www.parrot-finches.com