FINCHforum

I would like to hold a discussion on this topic, wht is the best route to go with hens with this problem?? My grandma's zebra lid a total of 64 eggs without a male. Even kept laying after the nest was removed. Is it best to get mate? Take away the nest?

I know owls tend to get eggbound, and young hens can continously lay, is it so bad to let them raise a clutch while young, or let them keep laying?

Well Dante this is a tricky one. Well I usually allow young hens to mature to around the 12 months old before letting them breed. One case I had a 4 month old zeb hen breed and raise a clutch but this was a mistake and fixed the issue once young were independent. Allowing her to breed with a mate will slow egg production and I won't get into the calcium bit. What I have found with gouldians which have done a similar process as your grandmothers zebs was to change diet for two to three weeks as this slow hormones, like what happens in nature. What I feed is red panicum and white french millet, or something equivalent. This is the only food given with fresh water and no other foods to be given. As I said this is what I do for gouldians it stopped their breeding and also induces a moult for them. I don't know if it would work on a zeb.

dan78 wrote:Well Dante this is a tricky one. Well I usually allow young hens to mature to around the 12 months old before letting them breed. One case I had a 4 month old zeb hen breed and raise a clutch but this was a mistake and fixed the issue once young were independent. Allowing her to breed with a mate will slow egg production and I won't get into the calcium bit. What I have found with gouldians which have done a similar process as your grandmothers zebs was to change diet for two to three weeks as this slow hormones, like what happens in nature. What I feed is red panicum and white french millet, or something equivalent. This is the only food given with fresh water and no other foods to be given. As I said this is what I do for gouldians it stopped their breeding and also induces a moult for them. I don't know if it would work on a zeb.

That is great info, I did not think off changing of the diet!! It must have been tough on the young mom... I think it may be becuse young hens are still developing, it is hrd for them to raise chicks when they are still chicks!

Mine stopped laying after I separated her from her mate.
I guess they kept mating even w/o a nest in the cage.

My society hens (FF pair) will lay eggs if there is a nest in the cage.
No nest, no eggs.

I have heard/read that if some birds can hear chicks begging, that could put them into the breeding mood, and eggs will follow.

Lolita has periodically laid eggs about 4 of them, wait a week after i take them(once she is finished with her clutch) and then lay 4 or 5 more. I CAN'T get her to stop! i don't want to remove Lux as she has no other cage mates to amuse her and i don't want her depressed.

i'm so confused

I agree with dan.
I think you should look at what you are feeding her. Maybe something is triggering the hormones (eggfood, veggies etc) try and slowly wean her from all that stuff and give her the basics, with occasional greens. see if that works.

Also maybe trying dummie eggs to get her to slow down at first? then slowly change the diet?

Dan is right. Consistant egg laying severely effects the health of the hen. With gouldians, fire finches and OBWB, all which are chronic egg layers, nest or no nest, mate or no mate, diet is the answer. Finches in the wild are triggered into breeding by the abundance of food. For those I dont want to breed, I remove all nests and feed a minimal diet, no need to separate sexes. The diet is white millet and panicum ONLY. No greens, just grit and water, thats it. Also if the birds are inside you can reduce the number of hours the birds are receiving light per day by one hour per day by reducing each day in 10 minute lots. Light triggers the rise in hormones.

Kenny- forgive me but what is panicum?

Kenny, very interesting! So in the non breeding season jst cut down everything?


The thing with my grandmas zebra was that she killed her mate, and just kept laying, and would sit on them all, on her giant pile in her wicker backet! I candled the first 31, 4 were fertile, the bottom four, we threw away the rest. She then kept laying and my uncle threw away the rest and the nest. She laid several on the floor after

PrettyBird wrote:Kenny- forgive me but what is panicum?

Sorry-panicum is red millet. The point is to remove all oily seeds such as canary, sunflower and niger/rape etc.

DanteD716 wrote:Kenny, very interesting! So in the non breeding season jst cut down everything?


The thing with my grandmas zebra was that she killed her mate, and just kept laying, and would sit on them all, on her giant pile in her wicker backet! I candled the first 31, 4 were fertile, the bottom four, we threw away the rest. She then kept laying and my uncle threw away the rest and the nest. She laid several on the floor after

You want them to think there is a bit of a drought. Unfortunately, in the wild, Zebs will still breed in a drought!!! very resilient little birds. Cut down the rich food and reduce light. That should help.

That is great, thank you!!! I was always wondering how to solve this problem.. would tht explain why when I added lettuce and daily eggfood to the diet they started breeding like crazy?

yes

When you think about it, Dante, birds in the wild are programmed to breed in the seasons that have plentiful food available, otherwise their babies might starve. So when you provide eggfood and rich seeds, it is like spring, with everything starting to grow and all the insects coming out again. Since that hen just refuses to stop laying, she needs to go on an austerity diet. It won't kill her, but eggbinding could.

Sally, I never thought of it like that. And my grandma's zebra is fine now, she does not lay eggs nymore but I was always curious about it.. I might get her, my grandma said I could have her because her cockateil is so time demanding. She is a normal, and I have no breeding plans for her, but she is pretty, I don't see why I cannot take her