Hello

[ZebbieFan 2]

Hello,

 

I have been fascinated by birds since a few years ago and planned to have some Canaries after last years summer, but one of my mother's friends introduced me to a local finch breeder. I discovered finches were more suited to what I desired in the birds I wished to own (small size, easy breedability, easy for begginners such as myself). I aquired my first three Zebra finches last year.

 

Unfortunately, I lost one of the Zebra finches over christmas day. He was handicapped due to a past accident at his breeders,  and became very hand tame over a matter of weeks. So hand tame he would try to jump into my hand the minute I placed it in the cage. I was able to take him out oof the cage and have him sitting on me.

 

My leftover finches  have been doing well after a couple of months. So well in fact that they have been breeding. The egg laying has been a bit chaotic at first considering the first egg was laid in the bird bath and the second was laid from a perch and smashed.  They laid their first clutch of eggs at the begginning of February, and began incubating them a few days later. They laid another clutch of eggs last week and don't appear to have laid any more. Looking forward to all the little babies soon.

 

 

[Emmy 528]

Nice photograph you have a 'normal' coloured cock bird, a chestnut flanked white (CFW) cock bird and it looks like a  CFW hen.

They laid their first clutch of eggs at the begginning of February, anid began incubating them a few days later. They laid another clutch of eggs last week

Its obvious that the clutch of eggs that were laid at the beginning of February will not have hatched out yet -do you mean that the same birds have laid more eggs in the same nest? Be interesting to know many eggs are there in the nest altogether.

 

You'll enjoy seeing the chicks when they arrive

Emmy

[ZebbieFan 2]

My white female (Snowball) did eventually manage to lay two eggs in the nest, for the first clutch, after the bird bath and perch laying saga. The male Zebra finch then took the duty of spending the most time in the nest to incubate the eggs.Then I found three eggs about a week later and kept checking in the nest everyday to see if I could see any more eggs and saw some hidden at the far back. The birds are continuing to incubate the eggs from earlier this month plus last weeks eggs.

 

The normal coloured cock (Clown) is the father of the brood as the Fawn male (Fawn) passed away of underlying issues last christmas. The photo above was taken within hours of their arrival (October 2012).

 

The female hasn't been doing particularly much sitting on the eggs as far as I have observed whenever I am not at college. Is it normal with some Zebra Finches for the male to do most of the egg-sitting?

 

Also, is there any way I could stop my Zebra Finches from laying any more clutches? I was thinking of allowing them just one more clutch before I stopped them, but I don't know how to stop them.

 

I am looking forward to seeing the chicks as it will be my first ever brood of birds and I just hope everything goes well throughout the whole process when they hatch. I have no idea which eggs are fertile and which ones aren't as I prefer not to disturb my birds, even if they are very used to being near me everyday.

[Emmy 528]

Are  you by any chance kept giving them nesting material?

Sometimes they can cover up the first clutch of eggs and then start laying more (kind of making a 'sandwich' nest)

It the cock bird has been incubating the first two eggs and is still sitting in the nest with the new eggs then those eggs may possibly hatch out if they are fertile  but they'll hatch out later than the first lot and that is when you may find a difficulty arising because the ones to hatch out first will be more developed when the other ones hatch and the older ones will be able to 'call' louder to be fed and this may lead to the new chicks not getting fed. So its something to look out for if they 2nd lot hatch out check their crop to make sure it isnt empty.

After all the chicks have left the nest and are feeding for themselves then remove the nest basket/box and this will stop them breeding. You must be aware though that the hen will continue to lay eggs even if the the eggs arent fertile and if you find eggs being laid on the bottom of the cage just remove them-dont leave them in the cage because sometimes the adult birds will eat the eggs and if they get a liking for this you will have trouble if you wanted to breed with them again - they may just start eating the eggs laid in a future nest. 

I'm hoping someone else will give you some more information and check that what I've said is correct.

Emmy

ps normally both birds take turns at incubating the eggs. and also take turns feeding the chicks. I've recently had a 'dad' taking over and rearing the chicks on his own after the 'mother' died. Guess your little cock bird is going to be  a devoted dad lol.

[dannyboy2012 63]

Welcome to the forum finchfan.

Emmy has got it right as far as im aware.

I think that the first clutch off eggs may be infertile as most first clutches are I don't know why, but I've had clear clutches, from my finch and my dad budgies this season so far, but you should normally find that the second clutch is normally fetileb

Dan

[casamber 60]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Kerry

[mark1e 67]

Hello Zebbiefan and welcome to the forum,

 

mark