Hi hope all is well I have decided to separate male zebra finch cos the babies r like 8 days old and he is already trying to mate with mum I feel she needs a break she had 6 clutches will it be ok as the separation will be for at least 5-6 weeks to reunite them
Hi Penny,
You are right about the hen needing a break, but she really needed the break 6 clutches ago. LOL You should always remove the nest as soon as the chicks leave it, and then rest the pair from breeding for about 6 months. It’s best to limit your pair to only two clutches per year. So if she has had all of these clutches one after the other, you are lucky she is still alive. Birds aren’t designed to do this. In the wild, the season changes and they stop breeding until the next year. Wild finches might produce two clutches in a row, but again, breeding season ends, so they still only have 2 clutches per year. I don’t know if this hen can finish raising these chicks alone. It’s better to put the male back, throw away any new eggs, and then remove the nest as soon as these chicks have left it. Once they are weaned and out of the cage, do not return the nest for at least 6 months. But given what this poor hen has been through, I would not let them breed for another year. If she keeps laying eggs without a nest, you need to make some changes to try to get her to stop, otherwise she is going to die from laying all these eggs. You can even retire the from breeding – just because a bird lays eggs doesn’t mean you have to give her a nest and let them breed.
They do not need the nest except when they are breeding. So do not return it for 6 to 12 months, if at all. If she tries to nest in a food cup, remove it and replace it with smaller cups. Move the cage to a busy place in the house. Keep moving it to different places in the room about once a week. Limit their light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening. If she sits in the corner of the cage, make her move and put a toy there to block that area. Usually a lot of disruptions like this will keep a pair from nesting. If not, you would have to consider taking her to an avian vet for hormone treatments. Removing the male will not necessarily stop her from laying eggs.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
