Eggs laid! Now they're fighting. + taking turns to incubate

[RaduPalanga]

haroun We were considering this. But... not sure what we should do : separate them or get rid of the eggs, as previously sugggested.

But hey, I want you all to watch this very short video. There seems to be something wrong with the hen... her left leg is hurt, as she can't stand properly. Even so, she was able to chase the cock a bit more (literally less than 3 minutes after we got back home & turned on the lights - they were sleeping separately, she was in the nest, he was on a stick on the other side of the cage)... jump around a bit, and eat.

Still, check out the video please. Not sure what's going on... I don't think the cock has hurt her. But most probably she got damaged in all this time she jumped around... like stumbled while chasing the cock?
The hen is pecking at her left leg with her beak (pecking, with her beak... oh well, will leave it like that ).

https://youtu.be/sjrKRe78shE

Babs, Shannylee, w.l. ...

Edit : forgot to say this. Since we got home (25 minutes ago), neither the cock nor the hen has incubated the eggs... it's like they forgot about them.

[RaduPalanga]

Well... The wheel has turned.

It seems like the hen is looking for something. More nesting material? I don't know. But the cock has been the one chasing her now...

https://youtu.be/1QzEVPL4Fgw

[Shannylee]

RaduPalanga, her little leg/foot definitely looks better in the second video.

Maybe they are just too young to have figured out what they should be doing. I would pull the eggs and the nest and see if things settle down with them. Or just pull the eggs and the nest material. She seems confused about what to do. She's probably just a little too young.

[RaduPalanga]

Shannylee Yeah, her leg condition has improved over the past few hours. Not sure what that was about... Guess she "stepped" on her ankle (stumbled on a stick, while chasing the cock), lol.
See the second video, where the hen can be seen jumping around desperately... She kept doing that for about an hour or so. Guess she got very very upset. I mean if I was put through that, I'd be extremely frustrated...

Taking out the eggs will be an easy task. But pulling the nest... not so much. You see, we strapped the nest in its position with zip ties, plus some other things. Hard to explain. We're better off just dismantling the nest (taking out all the material in it, leave the basket empty - it is a basket at origin, anyway). That way, by getting the nest undone, they'll be distracted from mating, and have to rebuild it; is that the logic behind this?

My girlfriend had the idea of looking at the eggs to see if they're fertile or not. We saw a tutorial on how to find that out - shining a light through, you know. We'll do that tomorrow, we're curious .

PS: This is where they're at now (see attached image file). They seem to have calmed down. The hen is standing on a stick - more like sitting on her belly - she's still pecking at her left leg from time to time. The cock is one stick further, bathing himself (that's what he's doing, right? bathing lol). Thing is, they're not fighting!
Edit: Nevermind. The hen just resumed chasing the cock. I'll give them the "good night" lights out and carry on with it tomorrow morning (toss the eggs, pull the nest)... I'm so tired of seeing them like this... guess they feel the same way, deep down their silly little heads

[RaduPalanga]

Okay, I took out the eggs. See the attached pictures... Two of the eggs seem like they were really going to turn into chicks.

Also, I dismantled the nest. They immediately started to rebuild it. Well, he did. She's looking around. She did chase him down A BIT (for like 5 seconds). Hope it's gonna go away...

[mohum]

If you really don't want any babies you need to remove all nests and nesting materials. Even then they still try. Mine use feeding bowls and vegetables to make nests which I have to remove daily.

[RaduPalanga]

mohum Interesting. Thank you for your input.

Well... I'll leave them the basket (which they have begun to rebuild as a nest), and if they lay eggs AGAIN anytime soon (by the end of the year), I'll have them removed AGAIN. I want them to go back to the state they were like a month ago : both sleeping next to each other, in the basket/nest. If they rebuild the nest and the fights start again, I'll have the basket/nest rendered useless (seal it somehow).

I do want them to have babies. Just not right now. We're moving. That's why I said by the end of the year . In January, if they want, they can lay as many eggs as they want .

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I see you have a lot of bird pets. 14 in total. Do you keep them in a single, super big cage? Just curious how you manage

[mohum]

The finches and canaries are in an outdoor aviary. Our winter night temperatures sometimes reach minus figures which is why I don't allow breeding until spring. I always smile when people worry about room temperature because as long as they are acclimatised they do fine. I wrap them up against strong winds and rain though. The two indoor birds and cat get on well together and I only shut the cat out of the room if we leave the house and at night. She mostly sleeps during the day anyway.
My finches like enclosed nests and the canaries, basket ones. The canaries lost eggs this year probably due to the finches so I will have to separate them in order to breed from them next year. Don't want too many more though. Outdoors they can make as much mess as they like but three indoor pets is more than enough.

[RaduPalanga]

Thank you for chiming in further, mohum !

Okay, so I don't have to worry about leaving the window open when it's cold outside. I was wondering... I mean I know they're outdoor aviary, but where they come from (Central Australia), temperatures rarely drop below 20 Celsius, so...

They're like 1 feet from the window (but they're somewhat clear from the window - see attachments). Right now, it's 5 Celsius out. No problem if I keep the window open, right? I mean... sure, when it'll be -20 Celsius out, I'll cover them like I previously said, but for right now...

You're from the UK, so I implied you use Celsius as well. If you use Fahrenheit, I apologize

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Back to the egg/cage/behavior thingy... It's been two days since I've dismantled their nest and threw away their eggs.

I threw the contents of the nest on the floor of the cage, where IT REMAINED PRETTY MUCH INTACT. I mean right after we dismantled their nest, the cock immediately started to carry coco strands in his beak - I thought yay, they're rebuilding the nest, but nope.

See the attached pictures.

They still are fighting at times. But this happens much less often...

[haroun]

hi - i think ur birds are still immature to go on breeding, please remove all materials related to nestling conditions
by putting a nest box or basket you will automaticlly wakeup the reproduction instinct of the zebra , it's a very well known rule on zebra keeping world "do not put any nesting materials including a nest for zebra to have confort sleep it will turn to reproduction to a desastre if not at age of reproduction : egg binding , egg tossed , baby killed etc .. " , spending the night in a nest is very unhealthy for them .
all my zebra spent the night on perches like any other bird ,and it's very good and so healthy for them mean for their legs and toes

[RaduPalanga]

haroun

Very interesting.

I did not know that last part - about it being healthy for their legs and such.

Okay, well... They're ignoring the basket for now (somewhat - I'll explain below), and sleeping / spending most of the time on perches. The nesting material that's on the ground... they ignored it completely today - didn't see them standing on it lol. I'll have the basket covered with something, so they can't access it. As it's too tightly "glued" to the cage - it's hard to remove it.

About the basket. Okay, so, today, they've been less violent. There still were fights, but not as much. I did see them standing on a perch, next to each other, pecking. So they're getting along.
But, later on, I saw the cock "defending" the basket from the hen - he didn't allow her near it, he was looking after her while "chasing" her (kind of like keeping a perimeter around the basket).
He (the cock) did sit in the basket for a while, while the hen was down, on a perch.

Not sure what to make of this. But I'll make sure they don't have access to the basket / nesting material tomorrow evening when I get the time to do it.

[Shannylee]

RaduPalanga, in regards to your window open...as long as you don't have sudden drops or rises in temperature, your birds should be fine. They acclimate pretty well to colder temps. Glad the fighting has eased up. It's probably best that you aren't trying to move with worrying about chicks anyhow. This will give your birds a little bit more time to mature and, hopefully, the next time they will have a successful clutch. Good luck with your move!

[RaduPalanga]

Okay, the hen has laid two more eggs... I checked the nest after seeing them fighting again for two days straight. As always, the cock was trying to keep her away from the nest, where he was sitting on the eggs.

So, I separated them. Placed the hen on the half of the cage where the nest was, and the cock in the other half. Then, I noticed the hen isn't always sitting on the eggs... and more often she sits on the edge of the nest, or on sticks.

I went to a petshop to grab another water canister (holder, whatever you call those things), and asked the guys what they think about it. They said I should have put the cock with the nest, since the father is the one who usually stays with the eggs... so I rotated them around

[Babs _Owner]

RaduPalanga

Oh dear, where is your hen going to lay the rest of her eggs if she's blocked from the nest?

[RaduPalanga]

Babs well, she only laid 2. I mean there were two the last week, and a few days later when we looked, there were still only two, so I guess she wasn't going to lay any more. Plus, she was alone with the nest (separated from the cock) for three days, and she didn't lay any more eggs, so... I guess she only wanted to lay two this time although I know they lay a minimum of 3...

Anyway, they had to be separated, since they were violently fighting again.