FINCHforum

Hello everyone! We are a parrot and birdy home and our flock is currently in the process of growing from 5 to ?. We rescued 2 Zebra Finches on the 22nd and literally on the 27th the female laid 2 eggs, she laid a third yesterday. Egg #2 was kicked out of the nest and broke so she and her mate are currently sitting on Egg #1 and Egg #3. I was under the impression that Zebra Finches only laid one egg a day. Has anyone else ran into this? I've been keeping a close eye on Mama to make sure I know if she gets egg bound. It's impossible to tell if this is her first clutch or not. I did immediately start making sure she got extra calcium and protein (dried crushed mealworms) to support her overall health and to help her with the egg laying. When we brought them home she was about 1.5 times the size of her mate so I was positive she had eggs in her. I'm glad I did! I would imagine if she doesn't lay any more eggs by tonight we'll officially be on incubation/hatching watching day #1. PS, after this clutch I will be replacing any future eggs with dummies!

And then there were three! Oh man, please no more eggs Mama lol. And so the egg watch continues...

Haha they usually lay 4-6 but often on there first attempt only 50% hatch so you will most likely end up with 3 but as one broke 2

She looks like she's moving more comfortably and her bum doesn't look as bulbous and round, so I think she might be done laying. If that's the case on the survival rate for the eggs we can handle that. I hadn't found much info on the survival rates. It's impossible to know if this is her first clutch or not so I'm just keeping an extra close eye on her for the time being until she's done laying. Thanks for the reply!

ElsiesCCs it’s okay if it isn’t she could have all hatch but in that case she will likely raise all well are you prepared for the chicks


With the extra food

Like egg mix , lettuce , grit and cuttlebone

Yep, we're good on that.

And then there were four! Egg #5 has been laid in the last hour. Mama is defiinitely a prolific egg layer....

ElsiesCCs they look like real healthy eggs aswell I think u might end up with the majority hatching

That's what I'm thinking too. Please no more Mama! lol

ElsiesCCs
congrats. I too have a set of eggs going. I checked last nigh and only saw one egg but the parents are already sitting. I hope this clutch is successful.

Yay for you! They've been sitting on them periodically already but from what I was reading up and researching the actual incubation period day count doesn't start until she stops laying all the eggs. We'll see how long it takes for our set of babies to hatch after she stops laying and then I'll know for sure lol.

With the nest filling that quickly, I wonder if you have two females.

Nope definite male and female. She only laid 2 eggs on the first day and kicked the second one out that day. Since then she's only laid 1 per day.

My society finch laid 2 eggs a day twice. She laid 6 and 5 hatched. Finches like making babies!

btw- stop feeding the mealworm after the babies hatch. I don't know if it's true, but I read not to feed dried insects because the rough texture can rip the babies esophagus when the parents regurgitate it into their mouth. Just to be safe I pulled all dried insects from their feeder. The littles are now approaching 3 weeks old.

And then there were 5....Oh my goodness Mama, please no more! lmao Our poor little girl is so tired from laying all these eggs. I'm soooo glad I had the foresight to start her on calcium immediately as soon as we brought them home after adoption.