COLOUR VARIANT SILVERBILLS:
I have been keeping African Silverbills (Lonchura cantans) for many years but it is only in the last few years as the Chocolate and Cinammon colour variants have become available that I have really taken their breeding seriously.The housing feeding & breeding of Silverbills is very similar to the Bengalese and they will eat the same seeds and foods as Bengalese, although they don't appear to be as enthusiastic as Bengalese in eating softfood when first obtained they can be persuded to accept it by providing it every day.

I have Normal, Chocolate and Cinammon colour varieties and they are proving to be free breeders now that I have discovered what they expect from me when they are breeding.
The most crucial aspect with my pairs is a 3ft long cage, anything larger or smaller brings mixed results and has not proved as successful as the 3ft cages.
They are intolerant of nest inspection from when they begin incubation in earnest, around the third egg, until they stop brooding the chicks, when they are 10 days old, you can then usually ring the chicks etc with no problems, but it is not advisable to disturb the chicks after about 20 days as this can cause an explosion of chicks from the box, causing premature fledging, it is better, and causes less problems to allow the chicks to fledge naturally.
Silverbills will rear a clutch of youngsters on nothing but seed, and spray millet, but if they can be persuded to accept softfood it will help, some fanciers state that feeding softfood leads to wet nests but I have not found this to be the case with my pairs.
Silverbills are not brightly coloured or great songsters, but they have a pleasing warbling song and are charming active cage birds that hold an appeal, and I recommend them to you.