FINCHforum

Yay! I got 4 of new babies about a week ago, just want to know if one if the babies normal? (The one with big bubbles on both side of crops) compare to other 3 this one was bubble but also looks like half of the bubble all air.

Both parents feeding them each day, but today I realized the hen was standing on the nest and doesn't looks like she is feeding the babies. I went and check she was picking the feather of the 4 babies! what should I do? As I can see one of the babies' wing area have couple dots of bleeding spot, which I don't want it bleed this young. I didn't want to separate them yet since the babies still so young. Even the hen still feeding it today, but I don't want her to hurt them as well. Can I separate the hen for now and let the male feeding them? I don't want the babies all bald head when fledgling next week, or injury. Any suggestions would be helpful, thank you!


David

The hen is picking the babies in this pic

I wouldn't worry about the air bubble in the crop unless it looks foamy (which might indicate a yeast infection). Usually babies take in air with the food and sometimes it creates a big bubble in the crop. Most often the air comes out on its own when the crop empties over night. Don't try to burp the babies or anything of that sort, you can cause aspiration and death. My MO is to always NOT mess with nests/babies/eggs unless absolutely positively necessary.

In the pictures I just see the mother standing over the babies. I don't see any feathers in her beak and she doesn't seem to be in the middle of plucking one. Maybe it was just a fluke and won't last. Give her a piece of paper towel, maybe that'll distract her. Try to leave the nest as undisturbed as possible. The babies look healthy and well fed.

Agreed. I am not a breeder, but I do know less is more when you have full nests or a sitting hen. She may be stressing out if you keep disturbing her. I would keep her and babies in a quiet area and let them be.

David
I just love those fluffy heads. They look so cute, like tiny little old men with a messy hairdo.

Keep a close eye on Mom. Is Dad in the picture, and is he feeding as well?

Unless, she really starts pulling a lot if feathers off the kids, I would leave alone. However, if she starts plucking them a lot, as in bleeding, screaming and so on, I would let Dad take over the feeding and place Mom elsewhere.

But, you have to make sure that Dad is feeding, otherwise you might find yourself having to handfeed all these screaming infants.

Thank you so much everyone's replies, very helpful.

Indeed I observed the mom is pulling little pieces from one of the bigger baby, the wing is little bleeding and middle of crop area. I think maybe she can't wait to have next clutch, that's why she wants these babies to get out of her sight so she can laid more eggs. I didn't take the pics well since outside of the cage, and I see the black color of tiny pieces from her beak as her head poke down on the babies

I was carefully put tiny dots of flour on the wound area, the by lbs looks better last night, I think maybe just air. The parents seems like me to get closely whenever I walk near their cage, because they make some welcome sounds like "jiiiip jiiiip" just like expecting me feeding them better food to the babies

Lovezebs,

I can't upload the pic of the dad, I see a message maximum 256 kb and the file us too big on the error message :/ will try again later. I think the hen is telling him to have next clutch because he was gathering whatever he can see from the cage floor in the nest, so this cause the hen to do something bad to the babies

I even took down the nest because the hen just nonstop by pluck on them whenever she looks at the babies. Then I decided separate her to the cage next to it, I cleaned the nest since too much poops, didn't want any infection or bacteria on these babies. You can see the pic below much cleaner than above pics! I even CHANGED a bigger size since 4 of them don't want overcrowded The parents doesn't mind I touch it and even calling me sounds like " where are my babies"? By looking at the place where the nest should be lol. While they looking for the nest especially the daddy, at same time I put the babies with nest on floor with a fluorescent light keep them warm when change the nest carefully, and used disposable spoon to scoop one by one to the bigger nest. ( indeed doesn't fit the spoon anymore because they are getting bigger now, have to use my fingers to help )

The dad immediately feeding on the babies after I put the clean nest back, so everything looks ok. I don't wanna disturb them unless have to, like yesterday the hen is really picking on the babies which I see it with my own eyes when observed her. I will update it here next time if anything changes. Thank you for reading my post!

David

Hope to pic not too big size to load it here, clean nest with bigger size too.

Do you routinely handle the babies and the nest this much?

That's good that the dad is tending to them.

I think removing the mom was the right thing to do if she is, in fact, plucking them to the point where you're actually seeing blood. Plucking can cause damage to the feather follicles and it would be easy for her to damage a blood feather, resulting in a baby bleeding to death.

You took a big risk by switching them to a new nest! I know many parents may have abandoned the nest with that degree of interference. So very lucky, indeed!
For what it's worth, poop in the nest is the norm. They tend to poop around the perimeter, so it's clean in the middle. So I wouldn't worry too much about that in the future. I wouldn't switch out nesting unless it was absolutely necessary (e.g. a broken egg.)

I had to change out some of the nesting material once as the parents broke a clear egg. It got on the babies too. It's was a big mess. I had to remove the top layers of the nesting material and replace with new.
Thankfully, they resumed tending to the baby despite the disturbance.

Afinch,

It's the 3rd clutch for this same pair finches, I did it one time before and they don't mind me to change their nest even I touch it. Good thing is I don't touch unless the nest looks so dirty they are my adorable parents zebras no matter what. Usually the hen doesn't pick on the babies that soon, not until they are about fledgling, this time I guess she can't wait so long, but I will stop them breeding after this clutch. Need to take a break since they used a lot of energy.

MiaCarter,

Yeah I'm lucky thankfully, because I always feed them fresh vegetables with hand, both of them come to eat veggies from my fingers, even I just fed them thru the cage bars, they get used to me already each day. Even I change their nest but they still don't mind, especially took almost half hour before I put the babies with new nest back, like I said I used fluorescent light to keep them warm while I set up the bigger nest. I observed the nest and the babies sleeping there do comfortably today. start getting little loud when begging food from parents lol!

Here are pics of the daddy, finally can upload these pics not too big. The first pic- the hen is outside on top of the nest today, I will let her in the other cage next to this one later before getting dark. 2nd pic --- poor lovely hen is there missing her babies and see the daddy feeding them too bad if she is not picking them from time to time, then I would have let her in to help too. I took the 2nd pic between the cage bars, don't want stress the daddy too much so it's kind of blurry. I will continue observe them and make sure the dad is feeding the babies. I was busy from school today and still care for them when I am back. I fed the daddy for a lot of soft food, so he will feed them well.

Sorry for the typo for my forum above , date 9/26/2014 7:09am

I meant they looks better last night...
not "the by lbs looks better last night, I think maybe just air. "
My ipad auto correction