FINCHforum

I would leave them alone. I have raised finches for awhile and when I first started, I did the same thing with both a zebra and society nest, well only one out of each clutch ended up surviving. I don't know for certain if this had to do with me removing the babies, but I'm pretty sure it was part of it. Now, I don't touch the nests until all babies are fully fledged. Now I'm blessed to have full clutches, 5-6 babies survive all the way through. I sell all the babies, I do provide the largest nest possible now though, instead of the bamboo, I do the boxes as there is more room, and I hope that will spread out the poop a little more. If anything, I believe it helps build up the babies immunity.

Thanks Emily.....
You gave me some perspective when I first joined the forum a few months ago.

Anyway.....I kind of suspected you were going to confirm my concerns. I have two societies that are very bonded.......after about 4 months together. I just get kind of disgusted when I look inside. I guess I should feel fortunate that there is only one baby in there. For the future, I might consider getting a bigger nest box, because that little bamboo nest could never comfortably hold 4-5 eggs. The problem is I have no place to attach a wooden box. There is no opening for the attachment of an external box and it would probably be too intrusive in the cage....hmmm maybe not. It's a small cockatiel cage 18X16...and 26 inches high.....ANYWAY,,,,, I don't want to get diverted from my primary issue

I guess I just will hang in there. The baby should fledge in about a week. Afther that, I'll wait another couple of days and out the nest will come. In fact, i don't think I will replace it. These guys are still young, and I want to give them a "time out" before I let them start encouraging them to go into a breeding mode again.

That is what I would do... once the baby has fledged, remove the nest and wait before letting them breed again. They sound young, being that they only laid one egg and raised a single baby. Once they are older, they normally have full clutches. Do you know their exact age?

As far as a nest box, you don't have to go out and buy one of those wooden ones. You can make your own:


This was one I made, and it comfortable held 6 babies who all survived. Plus mom and dad. I just cut out the entrance. They loved it and I could see a lot better into the nest.

This is when the babies first hatched. They were sooo cute!

Yes, they are on the younger side.....4-5 months. I know I probably should have waited longer before I put the nest and material in, thus encouraging them to breed, but........I really was more interested in giving them the "comfy" of a nest. Now I realize they would have been perfectly fine without one. But that is all history now. Actually, she had another egg that remains in the nest but is unhatched. It has been there about the same amount of time the baby has. I just figured that there is no harm in leaving it there for the time being.....again working off the assumption that removing it might disturb one or both of the birds and thus causing them to abandon the nest and not feed the baby. Like they say, if it is not broke, don't fix it.

I like your nest set up. Cheap, simple, and creative. Obviously your finches like it too. I am curious about what appears to be its placement on the floor of the cage. I was unaware that finches would go to the floor to nest. In reality, that is probably a real safe place because this way, if a baby ever stumbles existing the nest, it will not crash to the floor from high above, thus sending it to an early death. Interesting.

hi marcos
dont worry about the mess,they will survive with it if you can stand it they can .it is more risky to clean the nest or replace it as some times we leave smells on the chicks that we dont realize and the adults dont like it and abandon them thinking they are strange birds in there.it is a terrible time for the people who have to close ring thier birds as they have to be done when the birds are only afew days old and the adults dont like the rings in the nest and decide to throw them out sometimes with the chicks still attached....dont tempt fate and leave well alone

ken

Thanks a lot Kenny.....

At this point I have decided to take the advise of the more experienced ones like yourself.......and ...as you put it, "not tempt fate." I am just happy that I can come to a place where more experienced minds can point me in the right direction.

Thanks again all.....

Marcos wrote:
I like your nest set up. Cheap, simple, and creative. Obviously your finches like it too. I am curious about what appears to be its placement on the floor of the cage. I was unaware that finches would go to the floor to nest. In reality, that is probably a real safe place because this way, if a baby ever stumbles existing the nest, it will not crash to the floor from high above, thus sending it to an early death. Interesting.

Actually, the only reason I put the nest on the floor is because initially I didn't want any breeding in the big aviary, but my society pair INSISTED that they were going to breed whether I gave them a nest or not. So they started laying eggs in that particular corner on the floor, and were incubated and everything. Well, I have to clean out the bottom every week, so I couldn't very well let them raise there family on the floor. So I put that homemade nest right above where they nested, stuck the eggs in and they just moved up a little, and then I was able to clean the bottom of the aviary.

So, normally finches don't nest near the floor, but in this case, they did.

There are actually some species who do prefer to nest near the bottom, but I don't raise those ones. Societies are flexible though, so if you put a nest near the bottom, I bet they'd use it.