Ask Lafeber

Baby Zebra Finches

Hi…. i adopted 2 zebra finches… they have 4 babies right now in the nest… i believe its been about 3 weeks now.. the babies all look healthy – when will they leave the nest? will they just fall out?? they seem pretty big and cramped in the nest i have, I will remove it once they all get out.. New to this so I didn’t know that having a nest would be helping them breed!

2nd question… i have someone taking 2 of them but can I keep the mom & dad with the 2 babies if I DON’t have a nest??

Hi,

They should leave the nest any day now, and yes, remove it when they do. Once the chicks are eating on their own, you need to separate them from the parents. The parents will instinctively want to drive the chicks away, and they can get pretty rough with the chicks, in some cases a chick doesn’t survive the attacks. I would recommend keeping the chicks in a separate cage until you can determine the gender. Then only give same sex birds to the home that wants two. You should never allow related birds to breed, so it is best not to give away a male and female to the same home. If you can’t find other homes, check with any local pet stores as they will often take them if it is an independent shop. Never put them back with the parents because they don’t know any better and will breed with their own offspring.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda