FINCHforum

So I was a little less diligent in replacing real eggs with dummies than I should have been. I am now the proud but VERY NERVOUS grandparent to three little pink society finch babies. OOPS.

Firstly, they parents didn't really fill the nest out with any sort of material so the babies are kind of laying on top of a bunch of plastic eggs mixed with the bare bottom of a nest. That can't be comfortable but I'm afraid to touch the babies or do anything that might wig out the parents and cause them to abandon the nest.

Secondly, I have made sure that the parents have a good variety in their diet along with some mashed up egg food. Is this enough? Can I really count on the parents to do everything?

GOSH IM NERVOUS. This is why I was trying to dummy my way out. I totally wasn't ready for this.

From what I've read about Societies, they are great parents even if the chicks aren't theirs. I never raised any, but I think grated, hard boiled egg would be good. To keep it from spoiling, I change it out about every two hours. If you look thru some of the older postings in the breeding topic, you should see some more information on feeding parents with babies. All they need is the right food and the parents will do the rest. For my adult birds without babies, I sometimes feed grated hard boiled egg with grated carrot and shaved broccoli tops. That would probably be ok for them too. Good luck!

Society’s will do fine they will bring them up without any problem lol leave them too it and don’t be scared of abdonding them

Trinosaur

Societies are typically great parents, but definitely make sure that they are getting adequate protein and calcium. If you notice feather-plucking, add more food with protein and keep a very close eye on the one doing the plucking. In addition to boiled egg, you can give them dry eggfood, which is sold at most pet stores. The advantage to dry eggfood is that it doesn't spoil, so can leave it in for the entire time that they are breeding.
Mine like ground oyster shell for calcium, though cooked eggshell, cuttlebone, calcium drops, and powdered calcium work, too.

As far as the nest goes, the babies should be sitting on nesting material. Flat or smooth surfaces can lead to splay leg, since the chicks wouldn't be able to grip onto something, leading to their legs folding outward. Get a handful of dried nesting material (grass is good, but shredded paper towels or newspaper also works) and then put it in the nest under the eggs and babies. This can be a bit tricky. I would remove all of the eggs and put them to the side, then gently lift the babies up with a plastic spoon (not metal, it will make them lose too much body heat) and put the nesting material on the bottom of the nest. Then you can return the babies and eggs.
The parents might be a bit freaked out about this, so it would be a good idea to leave the room for ten or twenty minutes while they settle down. I've never had a society finch that has abandoned after I messed with the nest, so everything should be fine. In fact, mine even tolerate me taking the nest out for a few minutes to get photos. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this with first-time parents, but they can get to be quite reliable after one or two clutches.

OK! I'm gonna do my best here. These babies are so tiny and so fragile. I'm scared I'm going to hurt them. Anytime we go near the cage, all three finches are piling into the nest protectively so I'm going to have to be creative to get them away from the nest in order to clean it up a bit...

This is so nerve-wracking! I'm confident I can at least feed the parents adequately. I'm just really nervous about touching the nest at all. Mostly out of fear of hurting the little pink darlings.

I was just as freaked out with my Societies' first clutch. Really they are great parents and tolerate a lot of interference....ummm...'help'. lol you'll do fine. Suggest a soft towel with small pile nesting material on a nearby surface to remove chicks/eggs. Add nesting material in bottom of nest leaving a safe cup-shaped ledge all around so chicks don't fall out.
We've all started out here.....

BTW: If you have a home office shredder, shredded paper makes great nesting material. Mine used a base of timothy hay lined with shredded paper.

You could just leave nesting material on the nest or near it and the Male should pull it into the nest and place it under the chicks aswell

Fraza: I thought about that too. Wondered if you placed nesting material in bottom of cage would male build up the nest? Will they bury the chicks? Mine always built nest before laying eggs. So, I don't know. You have more breeding experience than I do....have your birds added nesting material after chicks hatch?

FinchLady

Not Fraza, but my birds would shove material under the eggs and chicks; however, they never put quite enough in if they had already laid. They mostly just sat the material around the edges of the nest, and didn't do much to the middle.

Icestorm: Ah, interesting...didn't know if they would ignore nesting material once chicks hatched or try to cover them up like some Zebs build another nest over a clutch of eggs.

FinchLady Icearstorm Yh quite similar to ice storm sometime they put odd bits into their but then mine have never bred and laid without nesting material in because I always put a layer of tissue in first lol to get them started

Trinosaur You've gotten a lot of good advice already. Societies are probably the easiest finches to fool with when they have eggs or babies, as they are so tolerant of nest checks. When I make egg food, I dry it out by adding the dry commercial egg food to my mashed hard-boiled eggs, till they are fairly dry. This way, I can leave the egg food in there all day (as long as your birds aren't in a hot room or area). Mine are in my house, so they have air-conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter.

Thank you all for the great advice. I very carefully transferred the babies via plastic spoon to a bowl with some nesting material in it while I cleaned out and *properly* remade the nest that the parents didn't uh... really prepare. haha. The babies are now back and being taken care of. One of them was really big! Is it normal for one to be bigger than the others? I was a little worried about the smallest one as it didn't seem to have any food in its crop. I've been checking up on them every day but it's hard to see into the nest when all 3 parents are piled in there.

I'm prepared to step in if I need to but so far things seems to be going alright. They even started cheeping today for the first time!

Trinosaur

It's normal for the babies to be different sizes, since the eggs tend to hatch on different days.

When did you add the nesting material? If it was early in the day, then the parents might not have had time to feed all of the babies before you looked. Hatchlings' crops only fill on one side until they are several days old, so perhaps you didn't notice signs of feeding if you only saw the hatchling from one angle.

Just wanted to give an update for you all! The parents are being so good. I'm not worried at all anymore. You're totally right in saying that society finches tolerate a lot. I can even get in there for photos when they're not diligently sitting on the babies. All three look healthy and cheep a lot during feeding times. Here's a little video I took:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbloy4btncs

it will be interesting to see what colors they are when their feathers completely come in. Daddy is kind of a darker brown color, and the two moms are light cinnamon, one being more pale.