FINCHforum

First hatchling
Zebra finches
18-20 days old x4 babies
parents have been in and out of nest all day today trying to push babies out of nest, babies are still very small and not fully feathered. What should I do? they keep pushing on the babies and had one half out the nest earlier until I walked up and they stopped. Little ones still have the wobbly heads and just now starting to move about more in the nest.

including picture

21 days after hatching, is when they should be fledging.
If they are 18-20 days old, they are very under developed. Like they are not being fed enough.

Hi I think I got my days a tad off, I marked my calendar and they were born starting December 21st-24th. So they are pretty close to 14 days old. Why would they want to push them out so soon? Is that normal? Thank you

i don't know why they want to push them out but it is not normal. Find some threads about "crops" the places on the babies that show how full they are. Are your parents eating egg food? Lots of people who breed birds here make boiled eggs and crush them shells and all. The parents may not be interested in feeding them if they don't have enough protein in their diet. There is a lot of info about breeding and feeding here! The babies look very young and not ready to fledge (leave the nest). Hopefully some experts will weigh in soon. If your really worried tag some of them. You do that by hitting the @ and then write their names. You can space between names. Sally, Cindy, Debbie, Babs, Elana, all breed and are knowledgeable. I am sure their are many more folks too!!! Those are just the ones I read most often.
Sally is one of the forum officiators so I would tag her. I haven't seen Elana here tonight she is very helpful.

As Spreckles said, give the parents PLENTY of food, including egg, to feed to the chicks. If the parents feel that there isn't enough food, their behavior can change to survival, and they will sacrifice the chicks. Also I have seen where the food that the parents eat will change as the chicks grow. Mine ate LOTs of egg in the first couple of weeks, then shifted slowly to the dry food after the 2nd week. But they still ate the egg food. So you need to observer what they are eating more of, and give them that.

Thank you, I have a egg food added to their diet now. Bought from store, should I add real egg as well? They have a pellet/seed/egg mix in bowl, millet seeds at bottom and added bowl with dandelion leaves, parsley. I also ordered a whole lot of mineral varieties on the way as well. Maybe some dried bugs?
One of the babies is out of the next, he is at the bottom, hopping around, mama is feeding him.

yourcharmedlife

how are your babies today?

yourcharmedlife

Your chicks definitely look too young to fledge.

Parents might be overly anxious to star another clutch, so might want to clear the nest for the upcoming eggs.

Are the chicks begging for food?
That's very important, because if chick's are under fed and weak, they may not be begging, so parents won't be feeding them.

How comfortable are you with hand feeding babies?

If you're OK with it, (I personally), would take the chicks out one and a time and supplement feed a few meals ( to get them strong enough to beg loudly). This may trigger the parents to star feeding again.

OK. so....
Today I noticed some new eggs in the nest, this is why mama and daddy are trying so hard to push them out the nest. I knew I had 4 babies in there. YET never got a good look. I took the nest down, candled the eggs and tossed them all {they are all new}. In the process, I pulled all the babies out. I was shocked. One baby was huge, looked like parents. Two other babies are very very small and one of those had NOTHING in its crop. I am now headed out to get some hand feeding formula, apple sauce and tooth picks. I had no clue the other two babies were so small and fragile. They were being hidden by the larger ones I think and not being fed as well.

yourcharmedlife

I hope you're able to figure out what's going on...they look so sweet, poor little things