star finches

christine · Post by **christine** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:59 pm

I have a pair of star finches the female keeps laying eggs and they both take turns sitting on them but they never hatch, i thought if i just kept the eggs in the nest the female would take a rest and quit laying but that doesn't seem to be the case. Could it be they are still to young?Im worried about the female becoming egg bound with all this laying.Any advice would be appreciated.

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:07 am

You could remove the nest. If that doesn't work, you may need to separate them to get her to stop for a while.

Sean

christine · Post by **christine** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:18 am

fairestfinches wrote:You could remove the nest. If that doesn't work, you may need to separate them to get her to stop for a while.

Sean

thank you i will give that a try

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:59 am

I had a pair of star finches that laid 3 clutches of eggs and the male was the only who would sit in the nest, every once in a while the female would sit for a few minutes then come out of the nest. The eggs were fertile but they never sat long enough to hatch. My male died and 2 months later i got a new male he sings to her but i dont know if she is interested in him. She hangs around him but know signs of breeding, hopefully they do so i can at loeast give them to the socities to incubate.

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 6:18 am

Remove the nest and put them on a seed only diet..this should slow the hens reproductive cycle..If she continues laying seperation may be needed until she's a bit older.
Diet and length of daylight will bring on the hens breeding condition,as indeed it would in the wild.

christine · Post by **christine** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:30 pm

Thank you i have now removed the nest and they seem more active, i wonder if i should also stop feeding them the dried bugs they like so much.

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:40 pm

I'd try continuing with the dried bugs. I think she'll stop laying anyway, now the nest is out. My Golbreast laid 2 eggs shortly after their first clutch fledged. I didn't want more babies so just removed the nest. She didn't lay any more, and I continued with the diet as usual, because I wanted the fledglings to receive a good diet.

Now that the babies have gone to new homes, I've cut back on the dried bugs and canned mealworms, and only feed bird bread once or twice a week, and only dry eggfood, no fresh.

christine · Post by **christine** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:50 pm

I also feed my stars egg cited bird seed with the egg in there, is it ok to continue with this seed mix?

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:02 pm

I don't see why not. I don't use Eggcite, I use Goldie's dry eggfood with insects. And I still feed it several times a week. I just don't bother with boiling real eggs now, since they aren't laying. (Unless I've having eggs anyway, which I only do on weekends - who wants eggs at 4:30 am?!

)

The only reason you might worry about feeding them too much of a good thing, is if it stimulates them to breed, as poohbear mentioned. Or if they are getting too fat. But if your cage is big enough and they get lots of flying around exercise, then basically just cut back a bit so that they don't feel conditions are ideal for breeding. You still want to give them some variety though.

christine · Post by **christine** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:21 pm

do you buy your food online? i get my dried insects from ontario because i cant find anyone who sells dried bugs on the island here.i would like to try and find some of your seed mixture.

christine · Post by **christine** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:32 pm

i found a pet store that sells the goldie food with insects,it sure will be cheaper than getting them from ontario, thanks again

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:42 pm

Sometimes Petsmart has the Goldie eggfood with insects, but not always. The Goldies isn't like Egg-cite. It doesn't have any seed in it, so you'll still want to feed a good finch seed mix.

And if you want to supplement with more dried insects you can also get dried bloodworms from Zellers quite cheap, in the fish food section, or from the reptile section of the pet store. My goldbreasts seem to particularly like them. And when you do want to breed your Stars, then see if the reptile section of your local petstore has Canned mealworms. They are not dry, juicy in fact. My birds like to suck the insides out, like they were a tube of toothpaste.

If you can't find them locally, then you can order online from www.fairestfinches.com. I've ordered from them, and believe it or not, shipping was faster than Canada Post, and cheaper!

I order Orlux ant eggs on line. The jar is small, but it's nothing but ant eggs, so for 2 finches it goes a long way!

I got some mixed dried bugs from a bird mart here on the mainland as well. I think there's a bird club up island (Nanaimo area?) that has a bird mart a couple of times a year. Maybe someone from there can give you a local source for mixed dried bugs.

Post by **Sally** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 12:35 am

poohbear wrote:Remove the nest and put them on a seed only diet..this should slow the hens reproductive cycle..If she continues laying seperation may be needed until she's a bit older.
Diet and length of daylight will bring on the hens breeding condition,as indeed it would in the wild.

Thanks for reminding us of the basics, Paul. The more we can mimic their lives in the wild, the more success we will have. I've been stuffing all mine with lots of eggfood, etc., and wondering why my young Owl hens are laying eggs everywhere! Time to back off on them a bit.

christine · Post by **christine** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:22 am

Is it also a good idea to stop feeding my stars the egg food that is in with their regular seed? and just put them on plain seed with their dried bugs?

franny · Post by **franny** » Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:27 am

I don't think the small amount that's in the seed will make much difference. All you can do is try. I wouldn't run out to buy more seed unless you need to. If she keeps laying eggs, then switch to a plain seed mix.

I imagine that removing the nest will have the desired affect. If not, then go with the plain seed.

Do they have a light on their cage? If so, then you could also set the timer to give them an hour or two less daylight. (I think they should still get around 10 hours of daylight, minimum. For breeding they do better with longer days - more like 12 hours of daylight. Others may be able to be more specific about this.)

Anyway, be sure to let us know how she's doing, OK? And if she stops laying.