I have 2 cages with a mating pair of zebra finches in each. One cage has hatched babies and they are soon to be fledglings. The other cage has another pair nesting. They’ve both been in the nest for weeks. I assume there are eggs or possibly the male over built the nest. I removed the nesting material from the cage. I’ve heard no tiny peeps from this nest. Should I leave them alone or check the nest for eggs? It’s an enclosed woven nest.
Hi Vickie,
I would leave the nest alone. They may have taken longer to get the nest ready and laid eggs later than the other pair. When you check a nest, it can be very disruptive to the pair and they are likely to abandon the nest and any eggs or chicks. It’s actually more important to control how often they nest. So with the other pair, you need to take their nest away as soon as the chicks leave it, or they will try to nest again immediately and sometimes that means they don’t wean the chicks and they die. In the wild there are environmental changes that signal the birds that breeding season is over. Since we provide an ideal environment year round, you need to make the pair rest in between clutches. It’s best to limit them to two clutches per year, which is one more than they would have in the wild. So the adults do not need a nest except for when they are breeding. Also, be sure to remove the chicks once they are weaned, to prevent the parents from picking on them. They should be separated by gender so that they do not breed – you should never allow related birds to breed.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
