First time having a baby zebra

Tips for successful breeding and troubleshooting breeding problems.
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OliwiaMoriarti
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First time having a baby zebra

Post by OliwiaMoriarti » Thu Jan 17, 2019 4:45 pm

Hi, my zebras are expecting a chick any day now, and I wanted to ask some questions.
Do I need to feed them some specific foods so they can feed them to the chick, or will they be fine with their seeds and veggies?
Is there anything I need to keep an eye out for?
And is there anything specific that needs to be done for the egg to hatch properly and safely, or can I just leave it be?
Hope to hear from someone soon, thanks in advance.
I have two zebra finches; Mouschi, and his girlfriend, Kim.

Icearstorm
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Re: First time having a baby zebra

Post by Icearstorm » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:27 pm

OliwiaMoriarti

Eggfood and calcium (baked eggshells, ground oyster shell, cuttlebone, etc). Every day. Calcium should always be available, and eggfood can be provided once or twice a week when not breeding, as well. Store-bought eggfood often has a low protein content- under 20%. While this is adequate for most zebras and societies, more protein is better when rearing young. Boiled egg is usually best, but does go bad quickly; I'd recommend leaving a dry eggfood mix in the cage with them, and also providing them fresh cooked egg when you are around.

Look for chicks being tossed out of the nest. It's not super common with zebras, but it does happen. If the chick is tossed, you may need to decide between giving it back to the parents (chance that they'll toss again), hand-feeding it (very time consuming), or getting societies and hoping they foster it (I would not recommend this; new birds will probably not be in the mood to foster, and could carry diseases).

You may decide to look in the nest, but be careful, as some birds do abandon. Zebras are typically good parents, but it may be best to leave first-time parents and particularly nervous birds alone. If you do look in the nest, see if the chicks have full crops. If their crops are always empty, they may not be getting fed. Here're some photos of young society finches; you can see their crops full of seed: Society Finches

Leave the eggs alone; the parents should know what to do. They only have one egg? That sounds like the female is too young/old, or otherwise not in condition to breed. They normally have clutches of 4-6.

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Babs _Owner
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Re: First time having a baby zebra

Post by Babs _Owner » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:27 pm

OliwiaMoriarti

Leave the parents to their work. It's exciting, but you dont want to spook them off the nest close to hatching.

This is a great time to introduce boiled crushed egg (yolk included) to their diet.

Boiled egg can spoil so be careful to remove the dish at the end of the day. They will feed the babies this voraciously until the kids are weaned.

I shave cuttle bone powder on the boiled egg to draw them in and the added calcium is great for the chicks.

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OliwiaMoriarti
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Re: First time having a baby zebra

Post by OliwiaMoriarti » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:52 pm

Icearstorm wrote: OliwiaMoriarti

Eggfood and calcium (baked eggshells, ground oyster shell, cuttlebone, etc). Every day. Calcium should always be available, and eggfood can be provided once or twice a week when not breeding, as well. Store-bought eggfood often has a low protein content- under 20%. While this is adequate for most zebras and societies, more protein is better when rearing young. Boiled egg is usually best, but does go bad quickly; I'd recommend leaving a dry eggfood mix in the cage with them, and also providing them fresh cooked egg when you are around.

Look for chicks being tossed out of the nest. It's not super common with zebras, but it does happen. If the chick is tossed, you may need to decide between giving it back to the parents (chance that they'll toss again), hand-feeding it (very time consuming), or getting societies and hoping they foster it (I would not recommend this; new birds will probably not be in the mood to foster, and could carry diseases).

You may decide to look in the nest, but be careful, as some birds do abandon. Zebras are typically good parents, but it may be best to leave first-time parents and particularly nervous birds alone. If you do look in the nest, see if the chicks have full crops. If their crops are always empty, they may not be getting fed. Here're some photos of young society finches; you can see their crops full of seed: Society Finches

Leave the eggs alone; the parents should know what to do. They only have one egg? That sounds like the female is too young/old, or otherwise not in condition to breed. They normally have clutches of 4-6.
Thank you so much for all this information, it's very helpful. I've tried to feed my male egg before, he didn't really like it, but I'll try a different method, and hopefully he'll learn to like it.
The reason they only have one egg, is because I replaced others with dummies. I don't have the right resources to house too many birds, and taking out their eggs is not stressful to them since they're quite tame. My female layed 11 eggs so far, one of which is on its 12th day. I kept 4 other eggs, but they're much younger and I'm not even sure if they're fertile just yet.
Again, thank you so much for all this information, I'll be sure to use it.
I have two zebra finches; Mouschi, and his girlfriend, Kim.

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OliwiaMoriarti
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Re: First time having a baby zebra

Post by OliwiaMoriarti » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:54 pm

Babs _Owner wrote: OliwiaMoriarti

Leave the parents to their work. It's exciting, but you dont want to spook them off the nest close to hatching.

This is a great time to introduce boiled crushed egg (yolk included) to their diet.

Boiled egg can spoil so be careful to remove the dish at the end of the day. They will feed the babies this voraciously until the kids are weaned.

I shave cuttle bone powder on the boiled egg to draw them in and the added calcium is great for the chicks.
I'll be sure to use your cuttle bone trick, my birds absolutely love cuttle bone. Thank you so much for the information.
I have two zebra finches; Mouschi, and his girlfriend, Kim.

Icearstorm
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Re: First time having a baby zebra

Post by Icearstorm » Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:16 pm

OliwiaMoriarti

Ah, that makes sense. I did the same when I had Javas, since they would have completely overwhelmed my other birds if I let them have a full clutch of babies.

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