Nests, eggs, and plucked feathers

[robbocop]

My zebras have made a nest and over the past two days there are two eggs, one each day. The female has a lot of feathers missing on her underside, legs, and under her wings. Upper body and tail are still full - so far. I have put in nesting material which they used for the nest, and emptied the material holder twice. I am guessing the feathers being removed are inside the nest as I don't see them anywhere else. Should I add more material? If I do, will they cover the eggs and not to be seen again?, or should I just let it be.

Thanks,

Rob

[Sally]

I would give them lots of nesting material. My breeding cages look very messy, as I put lots of nesting material on the floor and let them pick thru it. It is surprising how much they will use, and if they don't have enough nesting material, they will pluck feathers. Since they have two eggs already, they may wind up burying them, and then start a new clutch, but that is better than your female losing most of her feathers. It seems that a lot of finches like to finish their nests with feathers, so I buy the cheapest feather pillow I can find and put a handful of that stuff on the bottom of the cage, so they can pick and choose. Once they start sitting tight, you can remove the rest of the nesting material, or else they may start layering (lay one clutch, cover it with nesting material, lay another clutch, and so on).

[EmilyHurd]

If you have any other zebras laying on eggs right now, you could always move their eggs to a different nest, give them more material, let them build to their satisfaction and then put the eggs back. You may have to put some type of marking so you remember which eggs were there's.