Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
My zebra finch has had 5 eggs. I looked and there were 3 babies and two eggs. Then a couple of days later there are still 2 eggs, but I can't find the babies.
You can look deep into the nesting materials. The babies might have died and parents buried them. You may also find the dead babies outside the cage. So sorry to hear this.
I have 2 pair of zebra finches. Pair #1 (Curly and Colleen) have 4 young ones now 4 weeks old. Colleen has taken over the nest and started laying again. The first egg was laid today. How do I stop them from breeding so soon? Is this also why the adults have become aggressive towards their 4 little ones?
The other pair (Moe and Mindy) are in a separate smaller cage. She is quite young, about 6 months. She started laying eggs about a month ago. After the 3rd egg, he/she/they pushed 1 egg out, and repeated this. Then pushed out the second to last after 2 days and the next day the last one. About a week later this process started again. This time when there were only two eggs left they started incubating them constantly. After about a week of this they pushed out 1 egg and have continued to sit on the last one. Why would they do this?
Is the cage too small? Did Moe over fill it with the coconut fiber? Is she just too young?
I would not concern myself too much wit the second set of birds. They are young and it is natural they do this. Nature has a funny way of taking care of itself. As for the other birds you should move the babies out of the cage if the parents are getting aggressive and trying to make again and lay eggs.
One of the books about finches suggested replacing the eggs with plastic eggs. and the hen will incubate the fake eggs for about 3 weeks. I have done this and the hen and the cock have both continue to incubate the dummy eggs as well as feeding the 4 young.
I feel sorry for the male adult as the young run him ragged screaming for food. The young ones do eat on their own; seed, rearing food and lots of spinach.
Thank you !
Jim
Hi. This is my first time breeding finches. My pair of zebra finches have successfully hatched 3 chicks which are 4 weeks old today. I've noticed the parents breeding again and this morning the hen has laid an egg.
Will they continue to look after the chicks if they have more eggs. I was told the chicks needed to stay with the parents until they are at least 6 weeks old.Zebra Finch birds take care of there own. I wouldn't worry, let nature and the Finches that it's course. Be careful not to hover over the nest to much, this could cause a problem with hatching, they tend to be more private during this time.
Hi. I have one pair of zebra finches, but every time the female lays an egg on the ground and it breaks. They also have a nest, but she didn't go inside. What do I do?
It sounds like your finches are young and possibly inexperienced in the parenting department. Here's a few suggestions I have based on my experience raising finches. Be sure the nest is located in a private area of the cage. You may want to cover a corner of the cage to assure privacy. Sometimes, I've put more than one nest in the cage and the birds choose their favorite and lay eggs there.
My female passed and had eggs. Will another female foster the eggs? Also if I can not find another zebra female, will a society finch foster the eggs and will it get along with the male?
This could be very difficult to say one way or another. I know people this has happened to and they use a heat lamp to hatch the eggs. The male should take care of the babies when they are born otherwise it will be up to you to do this.
So I have a trio of 3 zebra finches, 1 grey regular female, 1 white female and one half white (underbelly and up halfway on the sides) half grey (top of head, neck, back with regular fawn on sides and orange cheeks) male finch.
The birds have 2 nest boxes/wicker finch nests. They started in one, but migrated to the other where they made their nest taking everything from the other nest out and putting it into the second nest box. Then they laid eggs and hatched them for the first time ever. This is the first time she has laid fertile eggs and mated with male instead of staying paired with the other female. She laid 4 eggs and 1 hatched really fast so I have this big grey fully developed baby you can see in picture and then half the size half fluff/fuzz and skin baby which I can only see because I can't see in the back of the nest.
The other baby seems to be doing well. Now the white female who is the only one who lays eggs, cuz the grey female has yet to do so, is super broody and into her eggs decided to lay an egg in the second nest box and it's been there just today. I put soft materials (cotton) underneath the egg after pulling it out and that's how I've always done it, but now she and the male seem to be fixated on sitting and staying in that nest. The grey female seems to be occupied with the other nest and I'm not sure how this will affect the babies they already have if she is gonna make another set of babies when the other babies are still in the nest.This shouldn't be a problem. The male and female take turns tending to the nest and the babies. The parent's know what they are doing and they will take care of their babies just fine.
You should like a first time mother and so concerned for the birds. This can be troublesome when you have never had eggs that have hatched before.
You should leave them alone and let them handle the babies and the new nest of eggs. Just make sure you give them plenty of food in their cage so they can feed their babies.
I wouldn't handle the eggs once they are laid in the next. Leave the birds to make their own nests and take care of the eggs.
You are fine and the birds are fine. They won't let anything happen to the young.
I have two males and a female zebra finch. She laid 7 or 8 eggs and I don't know the first thing about raising birds. What do the chicks eat? How will they survive in the cage? I know the alpha male seems to be the daddy and already he's territorial. I have no idea what to do. Help please.
By Jamie
Well, I don't know anything about Zebra Finches specifically, but I do know a few things about birds (do an online search on Zebra Finches to find out specifics). The mother birds usually feeds the babies, you don't worry about that.
The daddy bird usually stays out of it, but not always, so find that out. Some daddy birds kill the babies, also find that out, you may need to separate mother and babies from him until they are quite a bit larger. In fact this information pretty well covers the whole spectrum of "nature". Hope this helps, kinda :).
I was recently given two zebra finches (1 female, and 1 male) as a gift from my parents. I have only had them for about a month and a half and noticed them mating the last week or so. I have a basic cage that measures 18 X 13 X 10.5 inches with a small bed/nest hanging from the top.
I honestly never expected them to lay an egg, as my parents have had theirs for months and they never had and was told it probably wouldn't happen. Well sure enough, I came home today after work and noticed both the parents in the bed/nest which they have never once used before. When they left the bed/nest I shined a flash light in the bed/nest and noticed an egg. I couldn't believe it!
I have been researching finches and egg laying and have read that they usually lay one egg a day and can lay up to 8! I understand that many times the female will lay an egg, but it may not be fertile and will not hatch - therefore it can be removed after 20 days if nothing has happened.
My concern is that if they do hatch, my cage is just not large enough for more than two finches, but they have already started laying eggs and I have read you should not move them or the eggs until after the baby birds leave the nest and can be on their own. I just want to make sure that information is correct.
My other question is, can I still clean the cage even though they started laying eggs? I normally let the birds out of the cage in the bathroom to fly around while I clean the cage and I normally take the entire cage apart. But with there being eggs in there now, should I just leave the birds in there and only remove the bottom part of the cage that slides out and clean that part off or what? Thank you for any help and advice you can give. I am very new to this and never expected it to happen. Thank you!
By Ariana G
If you are going to move them into a more comfortable size cage (which the bigger the better) then do it now - then you may only sacrifice the one egg. The move will likely upset them, but only for the moment - they will lay again. I would still leave the egg in the nest.
Also, the less you disturb the birds the better once they've been re-housed - so the cleaning of the cage is as you have suggested. Best by just removing the bottom tray and refreshing their water. It will be ok to be a "little" dirty as it's only for a short time.
Once they have been hatched, are fully feathered, and flying you could move them into the smaller cage. Give the big cage a good scrub - with soap and water (and without the use of disinfectant). Then return them to the big cage - I suggest that once the babies are fully weaned that you separate them from their parents as they will likely want to breed again and the babies may get harassed. Good luck! Bird breeding is a joy.
I have a Galapagos finch as a pet and she laid 5 eggs. I wasn't prepared for this to happen and the eggs are without a nest. My question is, are they OK being without a nest?
By tori from San Antonio, TX
If you do not have a male finch in with her then the eggs are no good. Just toss them out. A female bird will lay eggs but they are not fertile so they will never hatch. You can buy inexpensive bird nests at most any pet store. I don't think it's necessary to have a nest but it does seem to make mama bird feel more secure as she is up higher and away from any predators. I have raised finches and always had nests for them.
How long does it take for a zebra Finch egg to hatch? I have a pair of white zebra finches which were gifted to me a couple of months back. I have no idea if they are a couple of a male and female or both female. How do I find it out? And now one has laid an egg, at the base though a nest was there.
Now one of the two is pecking at the egg. I don't understand anything now. It's so saddening to see it like that. I give them enough calcium supplements, food, water, air, and everything. I don't understand what I should be doing.
The birds lay one egg at a time and sit on the eggs after the last one is laid. The eggs hatch 12-15 days after she sits on them. An egg that doesnt hatch in 20 days is inferile.
These birds are not handled by humans under normal conditions, so you need to step back and let nature take its course.
First, my zebra finches laid 7 eggs, but they all died. A few weeks after, they laid 5 more eggs. Is this normal and what should I do about it?
It is called double clutching. If you took the eggs out and the mother thought they still might hatch she may lay more eggs. This depletes calcium. You may remove eggs when they see pushed out of the nest.
It is best to do nothing, and let nature take its course.
I have a pair of zebra finches one is female and the other is male. Today I noticed there was an egg, but after a few hours I saw that there was not an egg in the nest even though I saw the female zebra finch sitting on it. I am pretty sure it was an egg and it had not fallen to the ground. I don't know what to do.
Just leave it alone. They do not sit on the eggs constantly. Let nature take its course.
This is odd...is it possible the egg was small enough to slip through the bird's home and roll away? If so, did you go over the entire room? If so, do you have an dog or cat that could have found it?
My friends who raises birds said that sometimes the birds eat their own eggs...although they have never experienced it...they have heard about other feather parents who report such issues.
I had to Google it and there are a lot of hits for finches eating their own eggs.
Grace keeps laying her eggs in weird places, not in nesting box. 2 eggs were not viable, but damaged. I cleaned the cage and gave her fresh bedding materials and put the nest box back in.
She insisted on laying her eggs in her gravel dish will the egg break there? There are no nesting materials in it. I have not touched it.I am new to bird keeping. I bought 4 zebra finches some months ago and was told by the pet shop they were all females. Anyhoo a bird keeper friend quickly identified one as male. I have no nest box, but have today discovered an egg in the seed box.
I have made an impromptu next box with a fruit tea bag box and some kitchen roll and placed the egg inside it. I'm not sure which of the females has laid it or whether now I have disturbed any chance of her laying on it.We have a pair of zebra finches. They built a nest and laid 2 eggs which surprised us because we got them from someone that told us they where just a few months old. Never the less things where going great, the dad was brining twigs to make a roof and they where taking turns nesting on the eggs.
The eggs are probably about 5 days old when this happened. My wife has her 21 year old disabled daughter over on the weekend; she went to work this morning. I usually wake up at 9am and feed her daughter eggs before she takes her meds. Well I wake up to her daughter half in the bird cage. She must of wanted to see the eggs and she knocked down the nest and eggs. I'm so sad. I used a blueberry carton to put the broken nest into and rescued the 2 eggs.
At first they wouldn't go near it, but now she is sitting on them and he is making the new nest roof like before. I'm sure our daughter won't do this again as I made it very clear she may have killed the birds. But do these eggs have any chance of making it with being dropped and then God knows if she played with them or handled them? Please let me know how bad this is. The eggs seem fine, but idk.
Time will tell, but if the eggs are being sat on I think things will be all right.
Birds usually know if the eggs are visible and hopefully by sitting, she knows they are. Prayers for the feather crew! Post back what happens! Sending lots of good thoughts!
thank you will do so far both birds are sitting on them I hope they hatch will send a update thinking good thoughts
I think your eggs have a good chance.
So, almost two weeks ago I got a male zebra finch to pair with my female. The male immediately started doing his breeding dance or whatever it's called. A few days after that my female laid one egg and none since. I've been keeping an eye on her checking every day for signs of her being egg bound so far there are zero.
The egg's most likely a dud, but each finch takes turns sitting on the egg so maybe the egg is not a dud. Should I be worrying that my female only laid one egg? Is there a reason it's only one?Yesterday I woke up and I saw that my zebra finch had laid an egg. Today I woke up and saw that it had laid another egg. I saw them breeding a few days earlier, but I know nothing about what I need to do. Could you tell me what the diet is and if I should keep providing nesting material and just all the basics on how I need to care for them?
Thanks.
I would let nature take its course. Do not bother the birds now. You seem to be doing things right.
You can find some beneficial information on raising zebra finches at www.zbirds.com/
This morning (13th June), our zebra finches pair had an egg. Now, its 7 p.m here. I have seen that my female zebra finch's right wing is not ok.
It is being separated. But, it tries to keep it in the position. Is it normal when the hen is laying. Or, is there anything to concern?
I had 2 finches and they had an egg, and this morning I found my female finch dead. They had food and water and no signs of attacking or anything.
And I now have an egg and I can't tell if it's fertile or not or even how old it is. What should I do?
