Egg eater?

Tips for successful breeding and troubleshooting breeding problems.
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lovezebs
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Re: Egg eater?

Post by lovezebs » Tue Feb 28, 2017 2:14 pm

Icearstorm

Any new eggs?
~Elana~

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Icearstorm
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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Icearstorm » Tue Feb 28, 2017 5:27 pm

lovezebs
Not yet. The males have been singing, though, and I witnessed a few matings. (I think it was the two males mating on several occasions, so no eggs for them. There was also a female mounting a male; I don't know what was up with that.)

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by lovezebs » Tue Feb 28, 2017 7:58 pm

~Elana~

Linnies~ Canaries ~ Zebras ~ Societies ~ Gouldians ~ Orange Cheeks ~ Shaft Tails ~ Strawberries ~ Red Cheek Cordon Bleu ~ Goldbreasts ~ Red Brows ~ Owls ~ Budgies ~ Diamond Firetails ~ Javas ~ Forbes Parrot Finches ~

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Icearstorm » Sat Mar 04, 2017 4:25 pm

They layed an egg, but I would not have known had one of the chocolate females not taken it out... She carried the broken, half-eaten egg to the bottom of the cage and continued to chow down. No one else seemed interested, so I think it's safe to assume she's the culprit. I removed her and one of the males (he started panicking as soon as I took her out) and put them in a travel cage together. Hopefully it will do for the next couple of weeks.
If the other society finches successful hatch the babies and keep them alive for the next few days, I think I'll sell her, and perhaps the other male so she doesn't get lonely. I'll try to find someone who isn't particularly interested in breeding birds and let them know that she eats eggs.
I don't think nutrition is the issue, as everyone eats the dry eggfood which is 17.5% protein. Chicken eggs weigh ~60g and have a bit more than 6g of protein, so about 10%.
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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Icearstorm » Sun Mar 05, 2017 4:46 pm

lovezebs
It looks like they are sitting tight now.
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Re: Egg eater?

Post by lovezebs » Sun Mar 05, 2017 5:32 pm

Icearstorm

That's good news :-BD
Maybe you'll get some babies finally.

Regarding the one girl that likes to eat eggs....
That's not good. It might be a bad habit that she picked up even before you ever got her. Or she may have some sort of a deficiency that we're not aware of.

How big is your travel cage btw?
I know mine is tiny, and I wouldn't be able to house birds in it for more than a few hours.
~Elana~

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Shannylee » Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:37 pm

Icearstorm, I had to separate my gouldians and societies because one of my gouldian hens tried to murder the society chicks. I watched her toss the chicks 3 times in just a few hours so I waited until the societies went in their nests for the night, put my hand over the hole, and moved the whole flock of them into their own flight cage. The gouldian hen doesn't mess with the canary chicks but she was not having society chicks in HER aviary.
~Sharon

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Icearstorm » Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:40 pm

lovezebs
I hope so!
Even if it is some sort of deficiency I'm unaware of, it doesn't sound practical to keep her. Since all the other birds seem fine, even while egg-laying, it may be a genetic fault, though if she lays any eggs, I may consider leaving a few with her, giving the rest to the other society finches (though using my societies to foster other societies was not what I was going for), and seeing what happens. Everyone seems to have calmed down now, with thr occasional chirp or contact call. Now that I've moved the dominant male the other one is singing quite a bit more. He's nicer quality (darker feathers with more golden highlights), so I wouldn't mind him having more babies.
The travel cage is a bit bigger than 1'x1'x1.5' tall, as seen in the post three entries up. If you look closely, you can see the female at the right for reference. It's quite cramped, but fits eight birds sitting side by side (learned that during the evacuation) and has enough room for some flapping. I guess it's a bit like a person being confined to a small room; tight, but still enough room to get up and walk around. It's certainly not ideal, but I think it will be better than dead babies.

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Icearstorm » Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:44 pm

Shannylee
I am now pretty sure it was not them; I was sitting in the room the morning the partially-eaten baby was dropped in the center of the cage, and the gouldians stayed on the opposite side. Now they are acting a bit more interested in the nest boxes, but haven't made any moves to chase the societies away or kill their babies. I think it's the lighter chocolate self female, which I recently removed.

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Shannylee » Sun Mar 05, 2017 8:14 pm

Icearstorm, my chocolate pied society definitely has a different demeanor than the fawn pied or dilutes. I only have one and she is larger than the rest and is bossy (as societies go).
~Sharon

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Re: Egg eater?

Post by Icearstorm » Sun Mar 05, 2017 8:37 pm

Shannylee
I've noticed one of my male chocolate selfs (the greyish one) is a bit more aggressive, occasionally beak-fencing with the gouldians or trying to out-sing everyone else, but the other three don't seem particularly aggressive. As for size, they seem to be about the same as my fawn pieds, aside from the darker female, who looks about a fifth larger than everyone else. She's the prettiest of the lot, so I'm glad I didn't have to remove her from the breeding stock.

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