FINCHforum

There is a lot of poop all over the inside of the nest of the breeding pair. One baby just came out of the nest today and its whole back end is colored yellow and is very dirty with poop. Looking into the nest you can see poop all over the back side of the nest.

Is this normal?
If not, what am I doing wrong?
Should I replace the nest once the other two babies have exited it?

Once they've all fledged, I'd go ahead and replace the nest, and put in some fresh bedding. You can pack the bedding down as much as you can, but Zebs usually have this compulsion to rearrange everything. Those nests get really nasty!

Those nest do get pretty disgusting!
The chicks generally defecate around the edge of the nest until it slowly builds up. If they are getting dirty from it, I would make sure they don't have diarrhea.