FINCHforum

Hello- I just joined this forum, as I am a new finch owner and have run into a problem. I bought two zebra finches in early March, and a few weeks later there were three eggs in their nest. I didn't realize this would happen so quickly. Two of these eggs hatched, and fortunately a friend was happy to have the new finches. However, before these two were even fledglings, Mama finch began to lay more eggs in the nest. After she had laid six, there was a pause and then she began laying more. As of today, there are now eleven eggs in the nest! And it doesn't look like she is going to stop. Has anyone else run into this? I'm really not sure what to do at this point. Thanks for any advice that anyone has.

If you do NOT want chicks, remove and throw away the eggs.
Or wait, and as soon as the chick fledges, REMOVE the nest, then dispose the eggs.

Thanks for the response. I understand that I can throw away eggs, though I'd hate to do so. What I am wondering though, is it common for there to be this many eggs in a clutch. I don't even now if she is done yet. I thought a clutch was suppose to be from 3 to 8 eggs.

elkonian

I would almost bet on it that most if not all of those eggs are empty.
What you need to worry about, is your girl becoming egg bound and dying.

With so many eggs laid, she had probably severely depleded every bit of Calcium in her tiny little body. She needs cuttle bone and crushed egg shells, along with oystershell grit, to rebuild her calcium levels .

Personally I would toss the eggs, and remove the nest, giving her a chance to recover and build herself up once more.

Later if you wish them to breed, you can always reintroduce the nest.

By the way, welcome to the Forum.

Thank you Lovezebs. Since you thought most of the eggs would be empty, I tried candling the eggs. You were right, they all looked empty except for one which appeared fertile. I returned that one to the nest,along with a few of the duds, and she has gone back to sitting on them. If she keeps laying more eggs, I'll get rid of the nest then. I have been giving her egg shell a couple of times a week, but will stop by the pet store for a cuttlebone and oystershell grit. Thanks again for the advice.

elkonian

You're most welcome.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask

First, do you want more chicks?
If you can't give it away, you will have to keep it.

Give her egg shell with chopped hard boiled egg. There is something in the egg that helps the bird absorb the calcium from the shells.

Mine has laid 2 eggs so far, but my guess would be, that if the female doesnt stop, I would shorten her daylight hours. That is what I would do for my chickens. It other words, uncover the cage later in the day and cover it earlier. Then she cant find the day light time to lay the eggs. But I have only had two eggs and both went SPLAT! at the bottom of the cage and the hen cleaned up the shell. So i mean it is just a guess but worth a try. elkonian

elkonian Welcome to the FINCHforum! I spoke to you on our Facebook page. I am so glad you were able to join and post your question!

Brian

Thank you to all who have given advice, I really appreciate it. And also thanks for welcoming me to the forum. This is a great place to get info on caring for finches. Also, my girl finch did not lay an egg today, so thats good news.

Hello, and welcome to the forum! How is your overproductive hen doing?

The calcium is really important right now as I'm sure you know, she must be VERY depleted after making all those egg shells.

Update- well I checked the nest today, and there are two more eggs. I'm throwing away the nest, and hopefully this will stop her from laying any more. I bought her a cuttlebone and have also been giving her hard boiled egg white and egg shell. She seems healthy and happy, along with her mate.

elkonian wrote: Update- well I checked the nest today, and there are two more eggs. I'm throwing away the nest, and hopefully this will stop her from laying any more. I bought her a cuttlebone and have also been giving her hard boiled egg white and egg shell. She seems healthy and happy, along with her mate.

Wise move

I recently went through a similar situation with my Bengalese pair. First she laid a clutch of about 5 eggs. I believe these eggs were fertile. However she kept laying eggs until there were 12 or 13 in the nest.

At that point I decided the original clutch had died in the egg. So I discarded the originals. But let her keep sitting the newer eggs in an effort to get her to stop laying (hens will usually stop laying once they are sitting a clutch).

This did not work. By the time I gave up there were an additional 11 eggs in the nest. This time they all appeared to be duds. So I tossed everything and took the nest out.

However until she got sick a few days ago, she continued to drop an egg on the bottom of the cage every 3 days or so. But at least she had slowed down. She's not laying anything now.

Hopefully when she recoveres her strength she won't go back to laying more eggs.

In my experience this is unusual behavior for a bird. Normally you can discard eggs and replace with fakes so she THINKS she has eggs to hatch but doesn't really. Eventually they abandon the nest and you take everything out and she won't lay again until the next normal mating period.

But my Pye didn't behave normally, and neither did your hen. They SHOULD stop laying when they've got a "clutch" but our gals decided to throw convention to the wind and hoe their own row.

I've decided the best thing to do in Pye's case is just to keep removing the eggs and keep plenty of calcium in there at all times and hope for the best. I won't try to trick her with fake eggs because it obviously won't work, so I'll just have to keep an eye on her and keep tossing the eggs until she hopefully stops again.

Sojourner-

I did remove the nest, but as in your hen, mine is still laying eggs. Without the nest, they have been falling to the bottom of the cage
and breaking, same as yours. Though I've been giving her extra calcium, I am worried about what might happen to her. I've thought about separating her and her mate, though I don't really have room
for another cage. Thanks for your response. Its nice to hear about others experiences with finches.