FINCHforum

Hello everyone,
I am new Zebra Finch owner and I am so happy that I found this forum, and excited about the opportunity of chatting and receiving advice from experienced owners, as I really do want the best for my finches and I feel like I need help in order to care for them properly.
So, here I go, asking for your opinion on a delicate matter - after I took my finches home (a couple consisting of two females, probably unrelated to each other), I was very happy to see they were getting along very well, but a few weeks afterwards I started getting worried, for one of my two females started grooming herself almost obsessively, cleaning and combing her feathers all the time; the other one started doing it, too, but to a lesser extent. I quickly determined that it was very unlikely they had any sort of parasites, for not only the cage is kept spotlessly clean, but I haven't been able to find any evidence of any lice/mites anywhere - no black dots, no moving, nothing at all, not even when cleaning the cage. Plus, the finches did, and do not have any bald spots on them, and though they have been losing some feathers lately as a result of their overgrooming, this is not so evident now. After I had considered the possibility of their going through molting, I noticed that one of my two female finches started laying eggs (I found two in the cage over a few days' timespan, and then they started appearing pretty regularly, one at a time); this happens despite the absence of a mate, and even though I took care not to put within the cage anything even remotely resembling a nest, so that they would not be tempted to lay eggs - and so I came to think that the necessity for breeding or for finding nest material may be causing the finches to overgroom, and started breathing a little easier.
But now, now the problem has escalated, for the other female has started laying eggs, too, and now they do it almost constantly, several times a week, and I am really starting to panic, for I now that this 'false' egg-laying is detrimental to their health - I am trying to follow the web's advice, like putting less food in the cage and having them sleep longer hours, but nothing seems to work, as now they both lay eggs at an alarming rate. There are no bird-savy vets in my area, so that I don't really trust getting them to somebody who is not an expert on the subject, and I don't know what to do. I used to take the eggs out of the cage when I found them (in the beginning, the finches used to eat them, but do not do so anymore), but now I have left the latest ones in, so that one of the finches is actually sitting on them right now; I am doing it in the hope that this will perhaps lessen their willingness to lay new ones immediately, but this morning there was a new one already. What can I do? I thank you in advance for your attention - any help is greatly appreciated. Apart from the egg-laying, the finches seem to be ok, though the one sitting on the eggs is breathing a bit too fast for my liking while sitting over them (but as soon as she gets somewhere else, her breathing goes back to normal; so I am afraid she might be laying another egg).
Thanks a lot and all the best to you!,
Ben

Hello Ben,

It’s nice to see that you are a very caring new owner! Be sure to provide them with enough calcium as egg laying is extremely taxing on their body. I lost a female zebra finch just last month because of that... I’m still very heart broken over that. For calcium I usually would crush boiled eggshells into really fine pieces (almost powder-like) and feed them. They love this stuff! I can’t know if this would actually encourage them to lay more eggs in the future but their body needs calcium before or after laying eggs so it’s kind of like a “vicious” cycle. They eat their own eggs because they need the nutrients. One thing though, after they lay 3-4 eggs, leave them there so that they can “sit” on them without laying more. If you take the egg away every time they lay an egg they would keep laying thinking the previous one didn’t “make” it. In the meantime, maybe take away their nest (if you have one). It’s hard to discourage them to not lay any eggs because after all it’s just their nature. Living indoor provides them a safe environment and they tend to lay more eggs. Even if they are of the same sex, they would form bond with the other one and consider them as a “mate”. I saw my two female birds trying to mate with each other before because they believe that’s what they have to do. If it gets too bad, maybe you need to consider separating them for a little bit. I know it would be hard for both you and them, but laying too many eggs can really kill a bird or shorten their lifespan, or make them ill. My bird was especially weak probably due to genes, because the other one never really had any health problems. There was only one time where she looked really sick after laying some eggs and she couldn’t really move her legs (somehow egg laying affects the nerve in their legs, I’m not sure but that’s what happened to the one that passed away.) Hope this helps!

As Zebrafinch000 said, I think it is best to let them lay, and let them sit on them. The sitting part at least gives the hen a rest from continuously laying. If you don't want chicks, you can replace the eggs with plastic eggs. http://redbird.coffeecup.com/viewcategory.php?groupid=1

Along with calcium, your bird needs vitamin D3. Birds need D3 before the calcium can be utilized. D3 is available to birds from direct sunlight (not through glass), from boiled eggs, or from vitamins you can add to the food.

If you put your birds on an austerity diet it should stop them from laying eggs for a while. I give my birds an austerity diet for 1 month per year in order to give the reproductive organs of the birds a break. The reproductive organs shrink during this time. An austerity diet is a low calory diet that contains low amounts of oil. Eg. I give red panicum during this time. This simulates a period in nature when the food supply is low.

BenFinch

Hi Ben,

Offer only a seed diet with a very small amount of greens and shorten the day light hours (including artificial light) until this egg laying cycle is broken and they stop laying,

You can order fake eggs for them to sit on, or simply leave the eggs they've laid, allowing them to sit on their eggs (which at least gives them a little break).

Offer crushed egg shells, cuttle bone and oyster shell grit, to supplement the loss of calcium..

Not sure of your cage set up, but offer a couple of swings, and some fake plants to capture their interest and offer them something else to do other than lay eggs.