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Encouraging breeding society finches

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:58 am
by Birdsandstuff
I keep 5 society finches in a f040 flight cage. I’ve had them for 5 months and in that time they’ve produced 1 chick. I have cage light on a timer and they have free access to a basic seed mix and water, and they get supplemented with boiled egg a few times a week. Free access to cuttle bone as well. The birds seem happy, they’re all out of the nest and signing and eating within 1 minute of the cage light coming on in the morning. Best building is their favorite hobby and I think if I allowed them to they’d stuff their nests so full they wouldn’t have room to enter. Every once in a while I’ll get the random egg but none of them will lay a clutch and incubate. I don't understand what I’m doing wrong. I’ve also tried to separate pairs out and that didn’t make a difference. Please offer your opinions.

Re: Encouraging breeding society finches

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 5:46 pm
by Fraza
Birdsandstuff I would personally take out all nests and just give them basic seed and water for 2 weeks then I would put the nest back in and start feeding all there extra treats like boiled egg and veg then hopefully they might go into a breeding mode

Re: Encouraging breeding society finches

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:56 pm
by wildbird
Try some greens clipped to the side of cage, like dandelion greens or finely chopped kale in a treat cup or some shaved broccoli tops too. Be sure to rinse well any produce to remove pesticides.

Re: Encouraging breeding society finches

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:07 pm
by Birdsandstuff
So I’ve made some changes to the birds diet. I offer them their dry seed mix freely just as I always have. I’ve switched from providing them with a small amount of boiled egg a few times a week to offering them free access to Quiko egg food (I’ve never fed this before). I’m also offering them free access to chicken laying crumbles—I know some people are against this due to the sodium content, but I’ve talked to some older breeders and they swear by it. The birds seem to enjoy it but by no means do they seem to over indulge in it. Does anybody have any other recommendations or ideas? I’ve kept many other kinds of birds before, and I thought societies were supposed to be easy breeders...

Re: Encouraging breeding society finches

Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:15 pm
by Icearstorm
Birdsandstuff

Are these European society finches, by any chance? Those tend to be harder to breed. All other society finches should be very prolific. How old are these birds?

I feed my birds seed and mixed vegetables every day and cooked egg and sprouted seed a few times a week normally. For the 2-4 week dry season austerity period, I feed seed every day, and sometimes vegetables. When breeding season approaches, I continue offering seed and vegetables every day, but begin feeding cooked egg and sprouted seed every day as well. Quiko eggfood can be used, but it has much lower protein and fat content, so it isn't extremely useful for encouraging breeding. Calcium sources and fresh water should always be available. Generally you'll want birds on a breeding diet for a month before allowing them to breed.

Day length should change with the seasons, so I keep my lights on a timer and adjust them every month or so. Offer them nest boxes large enough to easily accommodate them all sitting side by side. A 4" x 4" x 4" half-open nest box should work, although you can go bigger. Cardboard boxes and cardstock food containers can also be modified to make nest boxes.

If they still don't breed well, I'd stop trying. There are tons of societies that are easy breeders, so there isn't much point in trying to breed ones that aren't unless they're quite unusual (like many Euros), at least not in my opinion.