FINCHforum

Well not loosing but I think the male may be eating the eggs.

Male1 with hen = 2 clutches of dud eggs
I swapped in a new male, male2
I saw an egg in the morning, and it was 'gone' in the afternoon.
I put in 2 fake eggs, which being plastic, he can't eat.
Then I put in a real egg a week ago.
Today when I went to candle the egg, no egg ????

I conclude it is the male2 because with male1, none of the eggs were 'lost'

This is the first time that I've had a society "loose" eggs.
And strangely, in a trio of males including this one, I never "lost" an egg.
Any ideas on what to do, beside pull him from mating/fostering?

ac12

Have you tried offering crushed egg shell at all times in the cage? Maybe the culprit (probably male 2) will go after that instead of the society eggs.

slwatson
You may be on to something.
They prior tossed an egg, without the shell.
And today I found another tossed egg, without the shell. ????

I gave them a dish with egg shell, so they get all they want in addition to the shells I give them with their egg.
Plus I just added liquid calcium to their water. That should take care of calcium deficiency.

Fingers crossed that the problem was low calcium in their bodies.

Egg laying is a major drain on body calcium. Its been estimated that making one egg shell uses 10% of the hen's TOTAL body calcium, most of which is in bones. Imagine depleting 10% of your bone calcium every day.

So I wouldn't be too quick to blame the male. It could be the hen trying to keep her bones from melting away.
They will go through a fair amount of crushed up eggshell when laying and also when feeding youngsters. The kids' bones are growing very quickly and need calcium.

They have had egg shells with their egg food every day, and they don't eat all of it. That is why I had not considered calcium deficiency, before. I figured she had eaten all she needed.

We shall see what happens, now that I put liquid calcium in the water.