Ask Lafeber

Question:

March 23, 2023

How to identify a pair?


Hi!I am a new bird owner got my finch birds 2 months ago…I have got a pair of zebra finch,A pair of White finch,2 pairs of pied Finch.Now note that these birds were adopted and bought so I was not able to clarify my doubts and questions….The previous owner said that the birds are adults and have laid eggs….3 weeks ago one of my albino pied got his leg stuck on the cage door and severely fractured his left leg so we had to seperate him from the flock and keep him alone…We do not know which bird is his pair(I am judging from the beak which is dark orange that he is a male)….also there is this problem that a few weeks back a finch(which one we do not know) layed an egg not in its nest but in the food box,and now today morning there were two eggs one on the food box and the other broken on the tray…please note that there are 4 nests for all 4 pairs…we have been providing material for them to build nest inside and they have been building it….kindly address my below doubts:1.How to differentiate male from female
2.How to identify a pair
3.How to know that they have finished building nests or still building?
4.How to solve the egg issue?

Please answer…it would be of great help…There is not enough ? articles on finches…I am unable to find much online…

Thank you


Answer:

Hi.

It sounds like all of your birds are zebra finches. Zebra finches come in a variety of color mutations. It sounds like these are all in one cage, and in that case, you need to remove all of the nests and nesting materials and throw away the eggs. If you want to breed, each pair needs its own cage and have one nest. There are a lot of problems with trying to breed multiple pairs in one cage. You are already finding out these problems. Often there are no defined pairs, and you have no way of knowing which birds are breeding with each other. Sometime you have one more dominant male breeding with all of the females. All of the birds are territorial when they have nests, so both male and female will spend their time raiding each other’s nests and destroying the eggs. If any eggs managed to hatch, the other birds would be likely to kill them. They will also turn on each other and start bullying weaker adults. If you want a happy healthy cage of finches, do not let them breed. They should never have nests and if they try to nest in a food cup, remove it and replace it with smaller cups. If you ever decide to split them up to separate cages and breed them, you have to find homes for the chicks because they can’t stay with the parents once they are weaned. And related birds should never, ever be allowed to breed with each other. But if you leave them in the same cage, brothers and sisters will breed or mothers & sons, fathers and daughters. Since you do not know the history of these birds, they may already be related. So I would encourage you to keep them as a non-breeding flock. As for who is paired with who, usually it is whoever sits together. But pairs are not as well defined when kept in a flock.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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