Ask Lafeber

Egg Abandoment?

Hi, i have a pair of zebra finches, instead of using the egg box i gave them, they laid their eggs on top of the nest box, something i was concerned about because it looked very precarious.
they had laid four eggs until the male started what i think was just fixing the nest, about three eggs fell out, (not at the same time).
i ended up disturbing the nest by adding some walls to hopefully prevent this.
They weren’t incubating to begin with, and i wasn’t sure whether they had finished laying all their eggs, so i left it a day to see how things would play out.
They still sleep in the nest, and check on it, but a day has passed and no more eggs and they haven’t started incubating. And the male is building a nest in one of the food bowls.
Can i do anything to save the remaining egg? is this normal? should i get rid of the old nest entirely?

Hi,

Zebra finches prefer a woven nest – the hut type with one small opening. They generally do not like a box. The nest needs to be hung as high as possible, with enough room for the male to sit on top. The male sits on the nest to guard the female and the eggs or chicks. I would get rid of the box, get the right type of nest, and let them try again later.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda