FINCHforum

I rescued a pair of crested society finches back in October. I have noticed that these two are significantly smaller than my LGF's and my zebras. I have never had societies, and I don't recall seeing any at the local bird shows, so I don't know if that is normal. They are currently raising two of their own babies and one LGF (born same date as first in their clutch), and the oldest society baby is about 2/3 the size of the LGF, but he also isn't as developed (quills instead of feathers).

Are societies typically smaller than Goulds? I don't know the history of these two, so they might just be runts!

My Gouldians are larger than my Societies, though both breeds tend to have stocky bodies. Don't worry about the size difference on babies, Societies don't seem to let those kinds of things bother them. My Societies just raised one of their own, along with one Owl baby. The Society baby at times looked like Baby Huey in the nest with the little Owl, but the parents treated them as equals. They are now fully fledged and feathered out, and are very similar in size.

Thanks, Sally,

I was worried about that little guy! I imagine he'll be stretching his wings and enjoying the room and attention once his older clutchmates fledge.

Another question you might know the answer to: I have read that LGF's rarely return to the nest after fledging, but I have also heard that societies all like to sleep in the nest. Should I expect the baby societies to return to the nest at night, even after they have fledged? I was hoping to take the nest away, first because it is filthy and second because I don't need ANOTHER clutch of babies!

The babies, and parents, will return to the nest each night. I would leave the nest in at least until the babies are weaned. You can either put in a clean nest, or take that one out, clean it out, and put it back in. If you have some hay, you could put a small amount of that in the clean nest, pack it down with a wooden spoon. I have not fostered Gouldians, so it will be interesting to see if that one baby returns to the nest at night with its 'siblings'. This sounds terribly heartless, but if they do lay any eggs while you wait for the babies to wean, you can toss them. Once weaned, that Gouldian baby can go in with the other Gouldians, and then you can remove the nest.

I considered tossing the eggs, but I was worried she would just continue to lay and exhaust herself, so I thought I'd try to find some little fake ones and/or freeze and return the eggs.

It's funny - some of my gould fledglings go back to the nest, and some don't. It doesn't have anything to do with the parents, either, since I have a trio of parent-raised kids currently zzzing away with their parents in the nest (who are TRYING to incubate new eggs).