Somewhat new - green singer female wont stop laying eggs

[theredangel]

Hello! As the title states.. I'm somewhat new to finches. Sorta.

In the past I had two zebra finches and a number of society finches. My two zebras.. Pip and Squeak.. were male and female, and in the same cage together exclusively. I was young so I don't remember all the details.. but I know Squeak never laid a single egg all her life. Maybe this was abnormal?

Today I am married and we got ourselves a canary. He's not very good at singing, but we love him all the same. Every morning I chop up kale and broccoli for him. Sometimes spinach, sometimes carrot. Sometimes other veggies I have in the fridge. It gets mixed into his seed. He lives in our dining room where he can watch us when we have dinner and watch tv and whatnot. He sings to us (badly, lol) whenever we're around... but the problem is that we're gone alot. We both work.. our hours are long and we're gone nearly 10 hours each day. Poor little canary all by himself, we thought. Even tho we'd leave the radio on for him.. we still felt awful. So we talked to the bird store we bought him from (Exotic Wings and Things) about getting him a friend.. and they said it would be ok to put in a finch for company. We picked out a green singer. We weren't sure if it was a male or female.

Raven (the canary) and Tap (the green singer) got along almost instantly. Tap sings very prettily, and Raven still sings.. badly, lol! But we love them both. ....and over time we found out that Tap is a female. She laid an egg in their food dish.

I wasn't sure what to do.. the egg ended up cracked somehow so I took it out. I felt bad about it but it would have gone rotten and I knew it couldn't be fertilized anyway. Besides.. she was constantly sitting in the food bowl on all the damp veggies.. her belly feathers weren't looking overly nice. I was afraid she'd damage her skin or go bald there. So I took out the egg and we switched to a smaller food dish that she couldn't get into. .....then she laid an egg in the tiny egg food dish instead. She couldn't sit in that cause it's really small but she tried. I'd started researching egg laying by that point and again, the egg had gotten cracked, so I took it out.. and the egg food dish. (The egg food gets mixed in with their veggies and seeds now).

So there's nothing but perches in their cage now. There's an outside water holder, and a water bowl on the bottom for them to have baths in. .....yesterday Tap laid an egg in the water bowl. I don't know what to do. I don't want her to keep laying eggs and wear herself out. I suppose they feel amorous towards each other but I haven't ever seen them mating.. there's a size difference anyway. The cage gets covered each night and they get a full eight hours of sleep. More on the weekends. And the lights are on each day.

Please help! Is there anything else I can do for her? We're even thinking of buying a larger cage and getting her a male singer so she can have real babies since she's so intent on breeding.. but then I'm worried about Raven and getting bullied in the cage. Eventually I'd like to have one of those large furniture aviaries and many finches.. but I never planned on eggs.

Thank you,

[Dave]

Try giving her a nest with dummy eggs. Just let her have her way, she'll probably incubate the dummy eggs. At least she won't be laying eggs while incubating.

Are you limiting the day length to match the natural outdoor day length? i don't know where you are located, but if you're in the northern hemisphere, your birds should be getting only about 12 hours of light now.

Longer day lengths will encourage the egg laying, and stop the natural molt as well. These types of birds need to go through the normal change in seasons.

That is--breeding condition in the spring, molt in later summer. Your canary might sing better (fall, winter, spring), too, if you follow the natural day length rhythms.

[Sheather]

Your canary and green singer can and likely will eventually have hybrid offspring! It's likely not happened yet because it's not canary mating season, and that could change come spring.

[andiok]

theredangel
hi there!
i didnt really get it if you're keeping both in one cage or separate cages but you have a mozambikus are very close to canaries in song and genetics. In fact you get one of the best hybrid singers if you mate them together.
Now the reason why your girl is trying to lay eggs is first of all because it is her breeding season. Mozambikus tend to have the breeding season later then other finches or canaries, plus you have them in the living room and the lights go on till bed time right? Not good at all. Birds need a constant day light period. Longer in summer time and shorter in winter time. Just like in the nature.
Second, your girl is trying to breed because the male canary is singing a lot to her and thats all they need to go in breeding mode.
Now there is a couple of things you can do if you dont like to breed her.
Separate her if you're keeping them in the same cage or use devides so they dont see each other.
Provide less proteins is you're adding any eggfood or protein seeds.
In the meantime provide some eggshells or bird sand so that she gets enough calcium to replace the deficiency (because she used a lot to make the eggs)

If i were you and the canary is in good health i would breed them and get some beautiful little hybrids with great song.
Here is an example of a mozambikus x canary hybrid.

Mozambikus x Canary mule

Good luck.

[theredangel]

I.. had no idea that they could actually breed. How is that possible with the size difference tho?

We live in Canada.. and the season is changing so I guess we'll put them to bed earlier. We'll also visit our bird store this weekend to look for a good calcium supply to give them. We don't eat alot of eggs so I don't have much in the way of shells to give them. But we'll figure out something!

I'd really rather not separate them.. we got them to be together.. so.. maybe we'll let them breed? I'll buy a little nest for her.. maybe that will make her happier. She did sing the most beautiful songs when she was sitting in the food bowl.

[Sheather]

Your canary probably won't mate her in September unless they've been kept under unnatural day length and he's confused and thinks it's springtime.

[theredangel]

I'll try the dummy egg thing again, then. I did buy little dummy eggs already and gave them a try.. but she didn't seem interested. But maybe if I buy her an actual, comfortable nest it will help.

[andiok]

theredangel
its not about size i guess.....its about love. hahahah
they have a close gene and can breed easily.
Now if you want to breed them is a whole different story.
You need to do your research and provide both of you bird with the best breeding conditions, or you'll end up with dead birds....

Just because you got them to be together, doesnt mean they have to.

You need to give them whats best.
Now, if you are breeding them at least the bonding part (most difficult) is already done.
All you need to do is provide proteins and calcium fortified foods. Multivitamins+Minerals are also important. Get the powder version because is safer then liquid ones.
Put a round nest like this type of nest and lots of nesting material in the cage and let them do their thing. In the mean time, read a lot, because outcomes might not always be the best.