It's not required to clean the nestbox at all, but if you want to do it then the best time for it is when it starts to offend you lol. Or when you find it most convenient. The parents will start spending most of their time out of the nest when the oldest chick is about a week old, and it'll be easier to clean the nest then.

I was horrified to see this morning that one chick is sooo tiny... I thought he just hatched, this is how little he seemed, but all the 3 eggs seem to be unhatched. I will take a better look later today. You know how difficult sometimes to tell apart who is where when they are all together...
Father keeps being a bastard. Spending all his time chirping around, preening older chicks, and doing nothing. He eats like crazy but I don't see him going to the nestbox even nearly as often as mom does. He sleeps in the cage with the box, but all he does is sitting on top if the toy. Even when I open the door to let them out, he follows the mom into the kitchen (while I expect him to get inside the box)

I am seriously thinking to remove younger birds out of his sight (but I am sure they will still be making lots of noise even far from him). I may take them outside today as we having a warm day. DO you take your birds out, tielfan?

What do you do with dried bread leftovers, if you have any? I have a lot.

The babies grow so fast that there's a huge size difference between the oldest and the youngest. I like to weigh the chicks daily to make sure they're growing at a normal rate.

I try to put my birds outside for several hours a week. The sunshine is very good for vitamin D production. You always have to be careful about safety issues of course.

I throw leftover cockatiel food outside for the wild birds to eat. They appreciate it!

The situation is really really bad in here, and I am really stressed. I can see that probably 2 babies just hatched. Which brings total to 7, or at least 6, if I can't see another unhatched egg under them.
The older chicks are flying all day long. MAybe this is the weather, much warmer, but they are just easily take off, they scream and fly. The father flies after them. MOther can't feed all of the babies.
It took me an hour to catch 3 older chicks to take them to the basement. One is still upstairs. But my unusual activity is scaring parents too. They think maybe I will catch them too after the chicks.
What should I do??????
I can try to feed the older chicks. I don't know how. No experience. I hope the parents can take over like they should.

Ok, I see what going on. One chick hatched, not two. There are still 2 eggs there. he is buried under the bigger chicks and I don't know if its causing him a problem or its OK and a good way to stay warm......
I released him a little bit (just got bigger chicks off him) but when I looked again, he was under them again

It's normal for the youngest baby to be at the bottom of the pile, and the other chicks will help keep him warm. If you can lock the father bird in the breeding cage he might be more likely to help take care of the babies.

The older babies are at a very high-energy part of their lives so it's normal for them to want to fly around a lot.

I tried locking him in the cage. He wouldn't even go inside the box.
but today 3 young birds out of 4 spent a good part of the day in the basement (don't worry, its not a scary basement and they are familiar with it as I handfed them there). Trillie did a very good job feeding when he wasn't distracted.

I hope the youngest baby is still.... all right. I couldn't see him in the evening, at all.... 5 same babies, not very tiny, and nobody else. I didn't pick them up to see what's under, they were all sleeping. I hope he pulls through... I pray.

the youngest baby can't be found! I got the box out of the cage to be more comfortable, I separated all 5 babies so i can see whats under them, I saw 5 babies (not so small) and 2 eggs. No sign of the tiny baby!!! did someone eat him?????

I just searched and saw that they could eat him if he was sick OR they were threatened. What if my yesterday activities (removing the younger birds and such) resulted in them to be threatened?

The hen loves to get into the new cage, gets down to the floor and searches for some poop. I discourage her of course. I do provide her with enough nutrients I thought. There is lots of green veggies on the table but they eat them so-so.

This happens when the baby dies and the parents squish it flat to remove fluids to prevent bacteria. Search around the bedding. There was about this. I'm going to find it for you.