Greedy and Lazy.

[CaliforniaZebraFinch]

My female zebra seems to always be greedy with the food and is always hanging out in the nest. I consider her lazy lol.

Is this a problem or is it normal?

[Nagdabit]

Sounds like she might be gearing up for a clutch. Are there any eggs in the nest?

We've always realized that laying eggs and raising young takes a lot out of a hen, but it was greatly illustrated for us with two of our girls. Anya and Katya are SF/FF hens that we got the same time as Satchmo and the gang. They are sisters from the same clutch, and look almost exactly alike. Really the only way we could tell them apart is that Anya had a tuft of feathers on her head that was a little funky, we called it her "mohawk."

That was however until she and Frost raised a clutch of five. Now there is a noticeable size difference between the girls, with Anya looking more slight than her sister. She doesn't appear to be sick. Her energy level seems fine, and now that the babies are almost eating on they're own, she is starting to put on a little weight. Just that sitting on eggs for three weeks and stuffing bird barf into tiny little beaks for a couple more after that is a lot more strenuous then we fully realized.

[CaliforniaZebraFinch]

Sounds like she might be gearing up for a clutch. Are there any eggs in the nest?

We've always realized that laying eggs and raising young takes a lot out of a hen, but it was greatly illustrated for us with two of our girls. Anya and Katya are SF/FF hens that we got the same time as Satchmo and the gang. They are sisters from the same clutch, and look almost exactly alike. Really the only way we could tell them apart is that Anya had a tuft of feathers on her head that was a little funky, we called it her "mohawk."

That was however until she and Frost raised a clutch of five. Now there is a noticeable size difference between the girls, with Anya looking more slight than her sister. She doesn't appear to be sick. Her energy level seems fine, and now that the babies are almost eating on they're own, she is starting to put on a little weight. Just that sitting on eggs for three weeks and stuffing bird barf into tiny little beaks for a couple more after that is a lot more strenuous then we fully realized.

No eggs.

They never showed signs of breeding interest and she was pecking at the male like if she was angry so I replaced her with a new bird. Also, Congrats on your babies a clutch of five is a great size.

[Queen_Bee]

I don't know if it is normal or not, but my CFW hen, Zenobia, is the same way. She looks healthy, eats like a horse and spends a great deal of time sleeping in the nest. Her mate is always busy singing and bouncing around the cage. He looks quite trim. I think Zenobia is fat! We have no eggs (although when I got them in July they did have 2 that never amounted to anything), but I am hopeful that when we're all back to school and the renovations on our house have ceased they'll settle down and produce a clutch.

Jacqui