Dear finch lovers,
Hope all are fine and staying safe. We are relatively newbie in finch care, and we now have 8 zebra finches at home. We love them, they are absolutely adorable.
Lately, a set of eggs hatched and there were 2 male and 2 female chicks. When the babies were out from their nest, we have observed that the parents are not taking care of the female babies very well. Other adult birds are pecking the poor babies. So we took them out of the cage and started handfeeding them. Now it has been more 1 month since we are handfeeding. One baby passed away the next day, but the other one is very healthy and staying with us inside our house for last 1 month. She is very much attached to us, very active and our kids are very fond of her and named her “Cuddles”
We have below questions: Could someone guide us, please ?
Cuddles
· Attached is her picture. She has pink beak and pink legs, whereas all our other finches have orange/dark-orange beaks. The other babies used to have black beak in the beginning and turns orange as they grow. We are worried/curious to know if this is normal or not.
· Coincidentally, the 2 babies that were ignored by their parents have pink beaks. Might that be the reason why parents were not taking care of them?
· It has been a month since we started handfeeding our baby. Till now she hasn’t started eating of her own. She always pecks on the millets and other seeds, breaks the shell but do not eat the germ inside the seed. She is actively breaking the seed shell and keeps chewing them but never eats it.
Thanks a lot !
