Brooding, No Eggs male and female

[Moon]

My breeding pair of Zebra Finch are brooding, but I don't see any sign of eggs.

The nest is pretty easy to check and they're very quick to stick to it when feeding time comes rolling in. The pair is not 'lining' the nest, but they're acting more like my mom's ducks (They hide their eggs). Sitting in the nest when I haven't seen anything in there. The only birds to lay eggs this time of year are the pigeons outside.

Though my bachelor males are acting kind of... rowdy too. One of them is doing a nesting thing as well.... It makes no sense?!

[Moon]

Mystery solved. My finch pair have an egg.

[lovezebs]

Moon

I was going to say, sounds like they're expecting.

Zebras by the way will breed any time of the year.

Congratulations on your egg baby.

[Moon]

No eggs. The brood on an empty nest. I'm thinking I'll switch the eggs from my rescued pair into the nest of the broader, but I want to make sure that's a good idea. Thoughts?

[lovezebs]

Moon

What happened to the one egg you mentioned?

Regarding the eggs from the pair of rescues....

Has anybody been sitting on them since you got the rescues?
If not, then they are probably dead in the shell by now.

If you did want to try it though, it couldn't hurt, with the worst case scenerio being that your broody pair would simply toss these eggs out of their nest..

[Moon]

The eggs were duds and within a couple of months both the male and female passed away. I did everything I could, took em to a vet but he said it was just age.

Still was very sad, but since then my previous pair went completely.... south.

[lovezebs]

Moon

If you pair were old, then that would explain the empty eggs.
Sorry thay they both passed away.
Do you know how old they were?

Regarding your other pair, when you say they went South, am I to understand, that they are both in poor health?

[Moon]

Nope. The female started attacking the males. All of the males. Her first mate was removed to a separate cage. I waited a week and introduced another male with the same results. I've got a thread up here somewhere on it.

I did discover a solution. I gave all the males nests, nesting materials, etc. Let them go to town and then tried to introduce her to their territory. Except for a pair of males that bonded. I leave them alone since they seem pretty stable.