FINCHforum

I have my shaft pair and female zebra in a large cage next to my desk in a room that is always busy and loud so I didn't expect much to happen. Then I noticed them using the seed cups to build nests in so I bought a large rectangular plastic nest for all three of them to share and go nuts in.

This morning I noticed the male and female are both busier in there and when I peaked they were actually feeding a baby and in one corner the zebra is sitting on her own eggs as well!!

I don't know how many are in there and didn't want to disturb them at all so I just let them be, I just hope it'll go smoothly and they will take care of their babies as none of my zebras took care of theirs.

I'll update the thread if I notice anything new

When you say in the one corner, do you mean in the same nest?

I would be a bit worried if the Zebra is sitting on eggs, maybe the shaftail male mated with her as well and you'll end up with hybrids. How long has she been sitting on eggs?

Yes, the same nest and I'm positively sure they mated, he's the only male in there.

I put her with the shaft tails cause she didn't fit in any of the Zebra or Gould cages, she was either attacking or being attacked. She fit in perfectly with the shaft tails though but I did not expect the male to mate with her cause he already has a female.

At first I was thinking of throwing out the eggs but I don't know if I should interfere at this point with chicks in the nest.

How bad could the hybrids be?

It also could be that the Zebra hen is sitting on infertile eggs. The nest and the breeding of the other pair could have stimulated her to lay eggs. I'd just let her go ahead and sit on them. If infertile, she will eventually give up on them. If fertile, you will have some very interesting-looking chicks, but they may be sterile.

There is not anything wrong with the hybrids in my opinion as long as you have a place for them in your setup, chances are you wont be able to sell or breed them so what is your plan with them? But lets not get ahead of ourselves yet, like sally said the eggs might be infertile in any case and it doesn't do any harm for her to sit on the eggs.

It's been 10 days now since I opened this thread and today as the parents were occupied I had a quick peak at the nest (without touching or moving anything) and this is how all three of them looked like:


(courtesy of finchinfo.com)

The chicks in the picture above are 14 days old so I guess that's how old mine are and I guess none of them belong to the zebra cause she's white and her eggs remain unhatched and instead of incubating them she helps the shaftails by feeding their babies and looking after them while the parents are eating.

One more week till they fledge!

It will be very interesting to see how they look. I thought I had some shaftail babies,since they were being fed and raised by my shaftail pair.
As they grew it became apparents they were zebra babies. 100%
I guess my zeb laid eggs in their nest. Please keep us posted.

Feathers came out and they all have the Shaft tail markings (the black throat bib and white marking on the tail), one of them is trying to come out of the nest and they're quite active inside picking on things around them and preening! That is the FIRST time I ever had young birds so I'm beyond ecstatic!

However, it seems like the parents are trying to have another clutch, I am not sure if I should stop them or if it's alright?

It's alright to let the hen relay...the cock will see to the chicks if she's sitting.But, only if you have space prepared for more chicks.Overcrowding leads to aggression and stress.
Paul.

Congrats on the babies! They are such fun, be sure and watch them grow as much as possible, as it doesn't take long for them to grow up. They go from fluffy little featherballs with little stubby tails to sleek teenagers in just a few weeks. I enjoy watching them try out foods, take their first bath, etc. As Hilary said on one of my threads, the babies look somewhat shell-shocked when they first come out of the nest, but that stage only lasts a few days, and then they start checking out their home.

It is so much fun waking up every morning and noticing how much they're growing! One of them was smaller than the rest but now he's catching up real fast and looks the same size!

Here's a picture I caught this morning with their dad and the helping zebra (their mom got sick last night, posted about it in the health section):

good looking birds, hope the hen recovers soon