Hi Piper,
I’m sorry you lost your female finch. They don’t live very long these days due to so much inbreeding in captivity.
Your situation is certainly unique because of keeping the offspring with the parents. In the wild, the weaned chicks would be driven from the nest and sent out to find their own mates. In captivity, the parent birds will usually begin to pick on and attack the chicks if they are left with them for too long. This is natural instinct and prevents inbreeding, which is what happens when related birds breed. If you continue to keep these birds together, you need to remove any nests. If any bird starts to sit in a food bowl as if they were nesting, get a different type of food bowl. You do not want related birds to breed, and they don’t know the difference and will breed if you give them what they need. Birds do not use nests except for during breeding season, and only until the chicks are weaned. So there is no reason to ever give these birds a nest. All you can do is watch them for any fighting and hope they continue to get along. You could find a home for the female, as the males will probably get along without the female in the mix. However, when you have an odd number of birds, even if they are the same sex, they still tend to pair off and the odd bird out ends up being bullied. If the female ever lays eggs, just throw the eggs away. When days start getting longer and weather gets warmer, this can trigger them to breed. You can try to stop this behavior by limiting their daylight to no more than 8- 10 hours per day. Cover the cage in the evening to achieve this. As long as they all get along and aren’t allowed to breed, then they can all stay together. You know what to watch for now, and can make the changes needed to try to keep them all happy.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
