FINCHforum

I have a cage of 3 societies I thought were all boys. One obviously isn't because I found an egg in the food dish this morning. I had noticed one of them sat in there a lot but didn't think much of it, being sure all 3 were boys.

I gave the egg to another pair who are just about to start incubating, having laid 3 eggs of their own. My other two pairs seem to like the canary nest pans but I don't have a spare one so I put a nesting box with nesting material in it in the cage with the 3 'boy' finches. They are now pulling the nesting material out of the nestbox and using the nesting material to build a nest in the food dish! What do I do? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to change where they want to nest?

You may have to change the feed cup to a gravity feeder. I have a canary that wants to nest in a feed cup. I had to remove it from the aviary until she picked a nest cup.

JNZ

What kind of nesting box? Societies like a covered nest with a roof but not a huge dark box unless they have some time to get used to it. They kinda like to be cozied up into each other in a smaller space (not too small) for a feeling of safety and comfort at night. And they lay eggs where they like to sleep in a group under normal conditions.

Hope that helps. This is the easiest nest to make them happy. These are sold at virtually ever pet store for just a few dollars.

JNZ
They might stop nesting in the food dish if you use a hopper feeder or a small food dish they cannot comfortably fit in, instead. (Beware if you switch to a hopper feeder; finches can take a really long time to figure out where their food is.) Or perhaps you could just let them continue to nest in the original food dish and put in another dish for food. Using a plate in place of a dish has also been recommended, though finding a clean place to put it could be an issue.
I had the same problem; my societies wanted to nest in their food dish until one night they decided to use a coconut-fiber nest (the ones they sell at the Dollar Tree), perhaps because all of them could fit in it more easily. They seemed quite happy with it for a while, until they gave up incubation a month later (they were given fake eggs and finally figured out they wouldn't hatch). Now they are back to sitting in the food dish, even after I put a cover over it to keep them from climbing in (they ripped the cover off and resumed nesting behavior). I guess I'll have to try some of the other methods.

Finally getting round to saying thanks to everyone for their suggestions. They have been successful out in the aviary in wooden nesting boxes. I think the humidity was too low indoors, especially in open pan nests.

Out in the aviary one pair took over a budgie box, stuffed it full of straw and raised 4 babies. My other pair chose a smaller finch box and hatched 5 babies. One disappeared, I found a second dead, then they abandoned the last 3 when the first pair's babies fledged. We found them the next morning very cold and weak, and one was dead. Their parents were feeding the older babies though!!! Against all odds I managed to hand rear the remaining two (that first day I did not think they were going to make it). They are now the cutest, cheekiest, funniest little things!

JNZ

Sounds like you are definitely aboard the baby train, lol.

A heart felt congratulations for handraising those babies, it is not an easy job.