Baby Cockatiel

Question
My pair of cockatiels laid their first eggs and suprisingly one out of the 3 laid hatched. It is now almost 4 weeks old and doing very well. I've decided not to hand feed the baby, but I interact and hold it to make it comfortable with humans...so far so good. My questions is, when should I move the baby out of the nexting box into something larger that the parents will still be able to feed and take car of it? It seems like the baby is going to take a step out of the nesting box and take a tumble to the bottom of the cage. Also with the parents feeding the baby themselves, when will the baby start weaning and should I put food and water in the new box?
Thank you!

Answer
Birds N Ways Winged Wisdon Magazine has all the info you need to breed and raise cockatiels. They have 2 stand-alone articles, and a 10-part series. Here is where to find them:
http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww1.htm

Click on "Cockatiels" under "Species articles" and it will scroll down to the articles you need. You will see the 10-part series...pay most attention to parts 6,7 & 8 - Fledgling Cockatiels, Socializing Chicks and Weaning Chicks. The other two articles are the ones titled Breeding Cockatiels and What about nest boxes - especially tiels.

I personally do not recommend removing the baby. Make certain that there is sufficient soft bedding under the entrance to the nest box to prevent injury to the baby when it "falls" out of the nestbox, or "fledges." Birds in the wild have to take that first big step out of the nest; while some do get injured, the vast majority manage with no harm. Same with domestic birds.

The baby will learn what and how to eat by imitating the parents, so just leave them in their cage, all together, until the baby shows itself to be self-sufficient. Continue to feed your tiels a well-rounded diet. You can find info on proper avian nutrition on that same page indexing the articles. Once the baby is weaned, make sure to separate the birds according to gender if you do not want any more babies.