FINCHforum

Hi all!

As I explained in my post in the intro forum, I'm a total newbie to raising finches. My boyfriend and I picked up our darling duo from the petstore in a love-at-first-sight moment, and have regretted nothing since then.

But of course, nature had its way and now our little chestnut-and-white societies have three eggs! We're doing what we can for them - adding nutrients to their food, giving them nesting material, so on. Of course, since we're new, we've barely got the basics of taking care of the pair down. This egg thing is both a shock and a joy!

We want their family to be successful, and are willing to do what we need to help them out, without getting too fussy. They don't exactly have a boxed-up nest, but they have a flat cushon that they sit and sleep together on in the warm corner, which is where the eggs have been laid.

When daddy (Skittish) saw that mama (Pudgy) was laying eggs, he became very helpful. When Pudgy was still laying, Skittish would sit on the eggs while Pudge sat on the warm rock at the bottom, fed herself, and generally "did her thing" between lays.

Now that Pudgy is done laying at 3 eggs (I haven't seen a 4th yet), and started sitting the night before yesterday, they seem perfectly comfortable in their roles. I'm assuing they've either done this before, or they saw others do it. As we picked them up from a pet store, heaven only knows what ordeals they went through before we met them...

For people starting out like us, do you guys have any suggestions for what we should start doing at this point? Any sort of foods that we should add, or just general advice? I've glanced through the current forum backlogs, but still want to keep y'all up to date with these little ones because we don't want to hurt their potential new family because of our inexperience.

I have yet to breed anything, so I will defer to others with more experience. Best of luck to you.

Parenthood is one of the most exiting things for me about keeping finches.

Luckily for you the societies are great parents and will probably do fine even if you are new to this.

The basics of breeding are:

1. Enough food, the food must never run out or they will sense famine and toss the chicks

2. Fresh water every day

3. A Balanced diet, although I've raised society chick on a seed only diet it is advisable to give them something extra. Egg food or boiled egg with shells and some greens are great. I also add crushed sunflower seed.

The rest is really up to them, good luck and keep us posted

Thanks so much for all of the replies and advice, guys!

I posted one pic of the cuties here. http://www.finchforum.com/gallery/displ ... p?pos=-610

They are currently doing well. Nothing's changed in the past few days, which is probably a good sign. If anything, the boy used to sing a lot and now he's very quiet, taking care of mama and the eggs, and doing his own thing when he needs to.

Looking good, y'all.

Thanks for sharing the nice photo....I hope everything continues to go well for you. Things can change so quickly with baby birds but it sounds like you are off to a great start!

ANY NEWS????????????

Yes, there is news.......

They tossed two of the eggs out over the weekend!! The eggs had been in their little top corner nest, but when we woke up we found one on Saturday hurled to the bottom of the center of the cage, and the same happened on Sunday morning with a second.

They were cracked, and upon inspection after the second egg, neither were fertile. I'm hoping that they knew that the two eggs were not fertile... because it would take a lot of movement to shift their eggs from the niche in the top corner to the middle and bottom of the cage. T'was no accident.

They seem very comfortable with us so I don't believe they're acting up out of fear... Mama's still sitting diligently on her last egg. With any luck, this wasn't a dud batch. If nothing else, it'll be a good learning experience.

What sort of nest do they have?? It could be while cleaning house or rearrainging the furniture the eggs were accidently tossed out.
is it a nic edeep nest? wooden or ?

Unfortunately, we bought them a little "finch home" which was the first thing we saw when we picked them up from the store. What a misleading name. It's a piece of warm material that was made in the shape of a hollow triangle so they could get cozy inside... they hated it, so in order to make use of what we purchased, we flattened it out and attached it to the perch to see what they would think. They took to the new warm flat almost instantly, and it's what they're using now; But it's hardly a proper nest, so we're to blame for that.

We gave them nesting material, but they don't really like it. They messed with it for a few days, then let it fall. I guess they probably need/want a different material! We never got around to getting a different type, because soon thereafter Mama started laying eggs, and we were not about to mess with their comfort at that point.

I don't think they were rearranging... but it's possible. We're also very gentle when we clean their cage and clean around the area, and haven't done a lot of moving around particularly because of the eggs. Their flat will be replaced with a proper nest as soon as this situation is resolved, but until then we're taking things very cautiously. There's only one egg left!

Well, they dumped two more. Looks like they had a 4th, after all... and no, none were fertile.

I cleaned the cage a little after I took out the last fallen eggs. Now the birds are chirping and dancing around like they used to - normal behavior.

...Oh well... none of them were fertile upon inspection, and it's been exactly 1 week since mama started to sit on them. Now that none are left, it looks like things are back to "normal."

I don't want to replace their little pad with a proper nest, nor do I want them to do this again for a long while. It could be them, and it could be us, but I want them to be completely settled before another round - and us to be better prepared for it.

Is it mean to take out their nesting area? I heard that this is a good idea to keep them from breeding, and it's the usual method, but it seems nasty to me. I wouldn't want my bed taken away, for sure. There has to be some other way, at least one that allows for a place for them to rest.

Sorry to hear about the eggs - but not to worry as next time will be better. And don't worry about removing their little love-nest; they don't really need it unless they are raising a family. They will perch together on any perches/branches you have in the cage and they'll be quite happy perched together without any nest.