What happens to babies??

[alyse36]

What a silly title

I just introduced myself and i'm very new to finches. I don't even have any yet! (tomorrow)

I have been having trouble finding out about breeding. I'm not planning on breeding now, but i'm wondering about the full process. I've been reading but i feel like there are gaps in the explanations I'm finding and i don't feel i fully understand.

I've read if the babies (fledglings, i believe they're called) don't leave the nest, the parents will start "picking" on them. Does this mean parents and offspring can never be housed together? Could the babies be moved to a different cage once they're ready (weaned) and then be moved back with the parents later once they're a little more grown? Are these bad ideas? if so, why?

Any help to understand this process and make it more clear would be greatly appreciated!

[w.l.]

All babies will leave the nest when ready for it.
A fledgeling is by definition a young bird that has left the nest.
Whether or not parents and offspring can stay together depends on the species.
If they have to be separated, you can't put them back together later either. The reason for having to separate them is uually that the parents want to be alone, ready to breed again without being bothered by their already grown up previous young. You must think about what to do with the young before starting breeding.
Be prepared to have to house them separately, or sell them.

[wilkifam]

What kind of finches do you have?

[lovezebs]

alyse36

If you don't want to breed, then I would get two males or two females.

As I always tell prospective Zebra owners, Zebra Finches are the bunny rabbits of the Finch world (along with Society Finches, but that's a different story).

If you get a male and a female, they will breed, and breed, AND BREED!

If you do decide that you want to breed, then planning ahead as to what to do with these babies is an important consideration.

In many areas, Zebras are a dime a dozen and not so easy to find homes for. Sometimes you can't even give them away for free, so one needs to consider what to do with an army of Zebras.

If you have unlimited space, you can keep your babies, but will want to keep males and females seperate, or they will...... you guessed it, breed. Brothers and sisters will breed, as will parents and children, and grandchildren, and so on, which is not a good thing.

So that's some food for thought

[Sojourner]

Breeding can be dangerous for the females. I lost one of a pair of females (so getting all females doesn't totally stop egg laying) to egg binding. From the time I noticed she was clearly distressed to the time of her death was less than an hour.

When I went to get a friend for my remaining bird, she turned out to be "he". So now I actually DO have a breeding pair.

Please please please don't purposely breed your birds. I'm having an awful time with my pair of societies trying to STOP them breeding. Or at least laying and sitting eggs, you really can't stop them breeding except by separating them.

I recently moved them from my son's house to my house. I had them stabilized there but since moving here - I got up this morning to yet another sad little lonely egg in the bottom of the cage.

Get all males and don't breed.

[Barbara]

I started out with a pair of society,thought they were two males but sure enough was a male and female I did let them breed and now I have a family of six.I took out the nest after the last baby fledged and never put the nest back in all opened dishes have to be at the lowest part of the cage and they are still all living together happy as can be.the male does do his song and dance and I would say in the last year I have had them,maybe found a few eggs in dishes (now there all moved)my advice is to do what sojourner said get all males if you can but a lot of males are hard to tell or 2 males don't get along, I have read the two females zebras get along better then 2 males but I'm sure this is not always the case.Just start out with the biggest cage you can and get at least two,hands on and lots of reading and you will be hooked like me and many others here I stared with two little society and now I have the birdies listed below.And love them all

[alyse36]

wilkifam I have 2 zebras