FINCHforum

About a month ago I got (what I thought was) 2 pair of zebra finches...1 standard pair and another pair that is a fawn female and supposedly a young cfw male.
Now the standard male and the other "pair" are nesting together. They have laid eggs(about 10 the last I checked) and ,today,they started hatching.
The "trio" won't let the standard female anywhere near the nest. The one I thought was a young cfw male is especially aggressive towards her.
Anyone had their finches breed this way?Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Tim

ps: I'll try and post some pics later for help with I.D./sexing.

[/img]http://www.finchforum.com/gallery/showi ... p?pos=-771[/img][/list]

here are some pics of the "trio"...any thoughts?






The 1st 2 pics are of what I thought was a young cfw or isabel male...
Pics 3+4 are what I think is a fawn female...
Pic 5 is,of course, the standard male.
The 'females" may also be a cream mutation??
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Tim

Sorry I can't help out. I've only had a pair of Zebs, way back when. But they sure are cute!

I have had zebras for over a year now and have never experienced what you are. The third picture is definitely a female. Hard to tell on the first two pictures. Could be a male with pale orange checks. Usually when my zebras mate, they will not allow another bird near the nest. The male will chase males and the female will chase females.

Have you candled to see if the eggs are fertile?

A few eggs were tossed...so now there are 3 hatched and 5 eggs still in the nest with them.
I'm not sure how long it took to lay the eggs...
Is it ok to pull the remaining eggs and candle them now to see if they're good??
I still don't know if its 1 male/2 females or 2 males/1 female in the trio...
Any thoughts?
Tim

I am not a zebra finch expert. But.... if your having fighting problems, I would think that you have got two males in there.

The three in this trio all chase a 4th(definite standard female) zebra finch away from the nest. The trio is a definite standard male a definite fawn female and a third finch of undetermined sex.
Tim

I definitely agree that the extra bird needs to be removed for its own benefit. See which ones are actually tending the babies and remove the other one. Zebras do not take care of each others babies so identifying the parents should be no problem.

as far as candling the remaining eggs, in that situation where there are hatchlings I usually leave the other eggs alone. once the babies are a little older and the parents do not spend so much time in the next I may remove the extra eggs if i can see them.

Good luck.

Here's an update of the "trio" situation...

Only the three eggs hatched(some of the other eggs ended up on the cage floor and some just never hatched).

Today, 2 of the 3 fledged. I suspect the third will come out tomorrow.

2 are fawn colored and 1 is silver(one fawn still in the nest).

All three parents have been and are still feeding the chicks.

I'll try and get some pics in the next day or so.

At this point I'm still assuming the trio is a male and 2 females.

Tim

Thats good news,good job

When I got my male, I was all ready to move one of my females (and canary who thinks she's a zeb) to another cage, but apparently my zeb's like threesomes too. They all work on the nest together, and they all sleep there at night, and Billy Bob has been seen courting them both. I only needed to move the canary.

Here are a few pics I took today.

Proud dad and fawn chick #1...


fawn chick #2...


The silver chick was out for a few minutes this morning, but I couldn't get a good pic of him/her...I'll try again tomorrow...lol

Tim

Conggrats on the fledglings. Zebra finches were the first finches for me to breed and have babies fledge. I went from 10 zebra finches to over 60 in just a month and a half, luckily i have managed to rehome all of them except for one pair i decided to keep.