Babies Dying

[karen403]

My finches have had three crops of babies now. The first two the babies died. The mom is sitting on them all the time, but I am unsure if she is feeding them and that is why they die. The last crop I touched to make sure the baby was still alive as it didn't move when I moved the nest out of the cage. Did I do something wrong by doing that? Before this crop we cut a whole in the back of the nest and we can now see through it when mom leaves it. This morning there were 2 babies, ten minutes ago I looked again and there are 4 with one more egg still unhatched. I have always been unsuccessful with breeding my parakeets, although two of my birds did have babies before we got them from a friend. Two of my other birds had laid eggs just to be unfertilized. I need some pointers as to what to do and what NOT to do so that these babies may live. Its been so disheartening to see them live and then the next day they are dying or dead. One was found on the bottom of the cage. Not sure if the mother sits on them and suffocates them? She did bury the last two in the shredded paper we provided. This time we put a little in there so that she couldn't do that again.

Any help would be appreciated. Please send emails to me at iansmome@gmail.com (its an email I don't use often that is why I posted it). Thank you in advance!

[Sally]

karen403

I'm going to move your post to its own thread, so that others may see it and offer advice. I'll title it "Babies Dying". What species are they? Are you offering egg food? Did the previous clutches die with empty crops, the parents weren't feeding?

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on finch care and especially breeding. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier for members to help you.

[lovezebs]

karen403

You will need to give us a little more information.

First of all, what species of Finches are we talking about?
Zebras
Societies
Gouldians
Owls
Stars
Javas
Green Singers
Parrot Finches....

There are many different species of Finches, with different species possibly needing different conditions, different nests, or a different diet, to succesfully raise a clutch.

By the way, removing a nest (with eggs or young) out of the cage, is NEVER a good idea. In most cases, the parents will abandon a nest once it's been removed, eggs, chicks, and all.

What kind of diet are you feeding?
What sort of nest are you using?
What's the size of your cage, and where in the house is it situated?

There can be many reasons why your parents won't feed.
Lack of proper food, lack of privacy, an area that's too busy, too much interference.....

In an emergency, babies can be handraised, but it's quite difficult to do (babies need to be fed every two hours or so around the clock with special handrearing formula) and in many many cases unless you know what you're doing, they don't survive.

[karen403]

Thank you Sally and Elana. They are Zebra finches. We are just feeding them regular seeds and water. I read about the eggs and we are going to put some of that in there tomorrow. We now have 5 babies and they seem to be doing well. Mama has been with them and we haven't been bothering them. I peek in on them when she is out of the nest as we cut a hole in the back of the nest so that we can see what is going on when she is out of the nest. Seems to be working.

We have parakeets and Cockatiels as well so the area where they are located gets busy. We always walk by and talk to all the birds, but its not constant. Of course we are at work and school during the week so I think that the finches get plenty of privacy. I will definitely read up on the articles posted here.

My only question now is how long will they stay in the nest? Once they are out of the nest do we need to find them a new cage or can they stay with mom and dad?

Thanks for reading my posts, I greatly appreciate it.

[lovezebs]

karen403

Here's a little information article , which will give you an idea of when what will happen...



Life Cycle
Clutch size: 2-7 (usually 5) eggs
Incubation date: After the third or fourth egg is laid
Hatch date: After 11-15 (typically 14) days of incubation
Fledge date: At 18-22 days of age
Wean date: Around 35 days of age (40 days for the Timor zebra finch)
Roosting independence: Around 50 days of age
Begin molt: 5-8 weeks of age (some as young as 3 weeks of age)
Complete molt: 2-3.5 months of age
Sexual maturity: Although Zebra Finches may become sexually mature around 3 months of age, many breeders recommend waiting until the birds are at least 6-9 months of age before breeding them

Fledging, is when they leave the nest.

Weaning, is when chicks begin to 'learn' to eat and drink on their own. Do not seperate chicks from parents, before they are fully eating AND drinking on their own, because they will starve to death.


Do offer hard boiled egg food and greens, along with spray millet (and finely crushed egg shells).

Good luck