Red headed finch Update Feb 7th

[monotwine]

Sentry duty. LOL love it. Seems one day you will be having little heads peeking out.

[cindy]

I hope so Monotwine. The female is so good about sitting. I had hooked up a warming light to the front of the cage during the whole egg bound scare. I am using a red bulb and had left it on at night for a few nights. I've tried turning it off at bed time since the danger has passed but the male gets upset and starts hopping around chirping loudly. Once I turn it off he settles down.

So for now the light stays on at night.

[cindy]

So the eggs are due to hatch within a couple of days, they started sitting on the 17th or 18th. Incubation time is 12 to 14 days. The female is rarely seen outside of the nest and has been very good about sitting. Everything I have read suggests live food but they won't touch the mealworms.

They will eat plenty of seed, herbs they like the egg food/miracle meal/ground Roudybush/ground bloodworms/Orlux fruit patee. I also added a little Breeder Blend to the mix (gave this to the other finch pairs also). They have gone through an egg cup of Hatched so far.

Question, shall I keep offering the mealworms with the hopes they eat them? Will they start eating them once the young hatch out?

[lovemyfinch]

I wold leave the mealworms Cindy, just in case this is the only way that they will feed.

[cindy]

I just put a bowl in and the female was checking it out...hopefully they will eat them. If not and they raise the chicks on my eggfood mix that would be great to. I'm going to order 5000 today, for them and the rest of the flock.

[B CAMP]

Do you put mealworms in seperate bowl,I just put mine on top of the eggfood or greens they find them

[cindy]

Bill I do both. I have a separate bowl of mealies and I also add them to the egg food. I also gave everyone whole blood worms ontop of my eggfood mix. Everyone is so loud and busy today. It is unusual so late in the morning to have such a racket!

I have noticed the female RHF is out more this morning eating. The male is in the nest more today. Maybe something hatched.

[cindy]

I got up this morning to turn lights on for the birds and discovered the pair both on top of the box, they most likely slept there. Uncomfortable with this since the temperatures were chilly and the heat went on a few times I decided to check the box.

The pair was not frantic as I did this. Sadly, the eggs did not hatch. They started incubating about the 18th and should have hatched a little better than two weeks after that, it has been 21 days.

I did not remove the eggs which looked pink, not dark. I didn't want to disturb them to much more since the female is eating calcium/oyster shell. Perhaps she will try again. they are also going back and forth into the nest.

I will consider the last few weeks a trial run with some very positive points. Atleast they were able to produce eggs, sat faithfully and worked good as a team. I'm not in a hurry to have them produce, they will when ready. I just enjoy having them.

[lovemyfinch]

So sorry Cindy. I would remove the eggs though, if you want her to try again, too many may make it difficult to incubate properly.

[cldheath44]

Sorry to hear the news about this clutch, Cindy. As you said, though, there were a lot of positive points about this attempt. I'm sure success is in the near future.

Christine

[cindy]

Thanks Janine and Christine. I will remove the eggs in a bit, I wanted to look at the calendar and make sure before doing so.

The female really loves Herb Salad, she has been at the cup a lot so I added a little Breeder's Blend to it and their egg food. I'll start giving her seed and egg food treats with wheat germ oil in it. Hopefully she will not get egg bound again. I'll keep the warming bulbs on the cage to add extra heat, just in case.

Side note though ...one of the little shaftail chicks fledged this morning. I'll post on my shaftail thread in a bit a little picture.

[cindy]

I removed the eggs, infertile. I gave the pair more nesting material to take their mind of my intrusion.

[JohnBoy]

Cindy, I would not be surprised if the same thing happens to me. When you bought our birds you were told they were still young, first molt I believe, right?. I had never seen mine breeding, but the male calls all the time. I will know by the 17th-18th which is the hatch date.

[JohnBoy]

I removed the eggs, infertile. I gave the pair more nesting material to take their mind of my intrusion.

How many eggs were in the nest?

[cindy]

Two