Ask Lafeber

Question:

September 23, 2021

Who loves who?


I have a large cage and 6 zebra finches. One pair was nesting but the eggs were unfertilized and I took the nest away once the eggs were broken.
A week or so later, I find eggs in the food dishes. I put the nest back and placed the eggs in it.
Then more eggs in the food dish and also in nesting box.
How do I find out who is the parents so that I can pull them out and put them in their own cages.
Right now they all argue like toddlers over a single cookie!


Answer:

Hi Linda,

Finches do well in flocks as long as you do not give them nests. If you don’t want to deal with breeding, remove any nests, and replace the food cups with smaller cups that they can’t use as a nest. If you want to breed, you have to set them up with one pair per cage. The only way to determine the pairs is to sit and observe them. The pairs will spend most of their time sitting together, and chase other birds away. If none of them seem to be in a pair, you may just have random females laying eggs. They don’t have to mate to lay eggs, so it is possible that none of them are paired up.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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