I love finches... currently we have Zebras and Gouldians, but we've had spice and nun finches as well...Some years back, we used to breed zebra finches for our own enjoyment. We nevr had any problems arise. When the babies were hatched, we had soft food in the cages for the parents to feed the babies.
The latest pair of zebras we have just hatched some babies starting last Friday. Since we couldnt see into the nest, we were assuming that the babies were being taken care of. Wednesday I found 2 babies on the bottom of the cage, dead. The parents had not been feeding them the soft food, but rather whole seeds, as you can see their crops STUFFED with seeds. It was disturbing. They're first time parents and I'm sure they "meant well", but the poor little chicks!
I was taking the nest out of the cage, because I'm not letting them mate for a while. When I took the nest out, I saw there was a little tiny baby that was just hatched earlier that day. I knew if I left him in there, he would die as well. I was unable to find somebody with society finches or zebra finches with babies who could adopt the little guy, so we are now handfeeding it. We've never hand fed a bird... but the internet has some great info!
He/she is SOOOO CUTE! It's now almost 5 days old, and I read that if you make it past 4 days you are doing everything right. But I'm still concerned with overfeeding Squiggy (thats his name! Named after one of Flower's pups on Meerkat Manor). He's always begging. His crop appears to be full, but he's still implying he wants more. Should I use my judgement, or continue to feed him until he quiets down? Will he quiet down?
