I’ve recently bought zebra finches to breed.a few days after the person I bought them off said they have recently laid eggs two days after I bought them off him I had the eggs and nest boxes off him and haven’t touched them I’ve put them in with the finches now but I don’t know if they will bother with them can someone help me or give me some advice thanks.
Hi,
The eggs aren’t going to be viable after a couple of days, because the parents most likely had already been sitting on them. If these birds are all in one cage, you can’t breed them that way. They get very territorial, and they will start fighting each other, raiding each other’s nests, and will destroy eggs or chicks. You also have no idea which birds are breeding with each other, and sometimes you get one dominant male breeding with several females. Eventually you end up with a lot of dead chicks and a lot of inbreeding. You must have one pair per cage for breeding. You said nest boxes, but zebra finches prefer the woven grass nests that look like a hut. The nest should be hung high in the corner of the cage with just enough room for them to sit on top of it. The male will spend most of the time sitting on top of the nest, guarding his female and eggs. They can’t do this as well with a nest box, and often do not breed as well. As for diet, seed will not provide the nutrition they need. You need to be feeding a pelleted or granulated diet, leafy greens, chopped veggies and an egg food. This can be a commercial dry egg food or you can cook and egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg.
You can’t allow them to breed all the time. If a pair raises chicks, the chicks must be removed as soon as they are eating on their own. Before this happens, they will leave the nest and you have to take out the nest right away. Otherwise the parents will nest again and let the older chicks die without weaning them. If you do not remove the weaned chicks, the parents will either start to attack them, or if they allow them to stay, they will mate with them after a few months. You should never, even allow related birds to breed. After the chicks are in their own cage, you must then separate them by gender as soon as you can tell male from female, or they will breed with each other. Back to the parents, you need to rest them for 4-6 months before returning the nest and letting them breed again. In the wild, they only breed once a year, because the seasons change and they move on from the nesting area. In captivity, they will literally breed until they die. Hens can die from laying eggs too often, and males can actually die from exhaustion. It takes a lot of work to manage breeding finches, and you need to be able to find homes for the chicks when they are old enough.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
