Mating Again While Sitting on Eggs

[hfinney]

Hello. I have three society finches, a male and two females. The hens started laying eggs on Oct. 14. They laid 4 eggs total, but three have been found on the bottom of the cage. They still have one egg in the nest. However, over the last 2-3 days, I've seen the male mating again with both females. Is this normal? Are they going to have more eggs soon??

They all seem to be far less interested in sitting on the last egg since yesterday afternoon too. I'm wondering if it will even hatch. Without even candling it, I can see that over half of the egg looks red. What does this mean? How long is too long to be off the nest?

Thanks for sharing your expertise with this newbie!

Hallie

[Fraza]

hfinney I don’t usually see pairs breeding again whilst they have eggs they may do a dance but never actually jump on top and physically breed just do there dance to each other and if they haven’t sat on it at all for about a day then u shud he abit worked and candle the egg to see if it’s fertile or not

[Fraza]

http://incubatorwarehouse.com/media//em ... ry-web.jpg Here a picture to help

[hfinney]

Thank you, Fraza. He's doing more than dancing.

[Icearstorm]

hfinney

Hmm, that's odd. Red would indicate a fertile egg, though it probably won't last longer than several hours without heat. The societies may have lost interest in incubating since only one egg was in the nest. After giving up on the previous clutch, birds often revert to pre-laying breeding behavior to get started on a new clutch.

Did they toss the other eggs, or lay them on the floor? Tossing could be due to a lack of protein or calcium, though parts of the eggs would likely be eaten. Alternatively, one female could be throwing out the other's eggs if she wanted to breed but didn't lay the last time.

[hfinney]

You may be right. I've noticed them over the last couple of days picking at another nest in the cage (that they've never paid attention to before). They seemed to be wanting to nest in it. Perhaps they gave up because there is only one egg. Too bad though if it truly is fertile.

I believe the other eggs were thrown out, because I saw all four in the nest at one time. I did see them eating a couple of them too. Sad.

But apparently they've moved on! If I haven't seen them on the egg at all this afternoon, should I assume it's dead?

[Fraza]

hfinney your welcome and I agree with Icearstorm in the fact they just give up on that and wanted to start again

[Babs _Owner]

hfinney

If they are eating their eggs they might be craving calcium. Crush up some chicken eggshells for them. If they are going to be laying again the hens will really need the calcium.

Add a vitamin d supplement (usually bird multi vitamins contain Vit D).

They need the vitamin D to absorb the calcium. Good luck on the new clutch and keep us posted.