Strawberry Finches -- fostering and molting question

[ApricotMuffins]

I purchased a male/female pair of strawberry finches in July from David at birdproduct.com. At the time, the male was just beginning to start to molt into his breeding plumage. The strawberry finches are housed in a 60''x18''x18'' cage. I was worried because in all that time until the beginning of October, the pair mostly just sat quietly next to each other or hopped around the cage with no courtship displays between them. At the time, I chalked it up to the fact that they were young (possibly) and the male hadn't molted into his breeding plumage all the way so the hen wasn't entirely interested in him.

At the beginning of October, I was graced with a very productive period between the two (despite the male not being in full breeding plumage), and the female laid 9 eggs in their canary style nest. Out of these 9, one hatched and two were late embryo death (the other 6 early embryo death which I discovered after I candled the eggs). I wasn't very hopeful for this clutch because with such tiny bodies taking turns incubating, I doubted the pair could sufficiently incubate all 9 at the same time and I didn't have any fosters set up or the courage to try incubating them myself and hand raising these tiny waxbills since I've never even hand fed a finch chick before.

Being the pair's first clutch, the (sadly) predictably event occurred--of the one egg they managed to hatch, they did not feed it. It died 3 days after it hatched from starvation. I found it tossed in the morning before I went to work, it's crop completely empty, and too late to save with hand feeding since it was dead. This is one of those times I wish I had given in to temptation and just done the nest check instead of trying to give them their privacy

Back in late September, I had a friend who owns several cages of zebra finches tell me that the Exo Terra reptiglo 5.0 bulbs would provide enough UVA/UVB lighting to get him through his molt. I have let the reptiglo light run for 9 hours a day (11am-8pm) for at least 2 months, and while the finches seem to enjoy the extra light, he doesn't seem to be progressing in his molt. So color me not impressed

Diet
finch seed (paradise earth blend)
chopped hard boiled egg with grated carrot and broccoli (mashed egg shell included) (every other day)
live mini mealworms (which I can never tell if they actually eat, because I've been finding darkling beetles here and there)
freeze dried bloodworms (which I can never tell if they actually eat or they just blow it away when they land to get their food)
soaked millet (once a week)
sprouted seed (every 3 days)
F-vite (seems to be ignored and only ingested when I mix a tiny pinch into their egg mix)
Cuttle bone


Should I ditch the reptiglo bulbs and invest in a featherbrite bulb and see if that helps him with his molting process? Would any forum members recommend featherfast? It seems that many people recommend outdoor aviaries for strawberry finches, but I don't really have that option at the moment.

The strawberry chick died on October 13th, and since then I pulled the nest. I figured after 9 eggs, the hen would need some time to recover her calcium reserves. And while she recovers, I have to decide on whether to foster her future eggs under societies or not. When they were producing eggs, the couple seemed to be very fertile but not the best of parents. Although parent raised young are always preferred, the babies seem too valuable to risk any more DIS or early embryo deaths.

Should I give the pair another chance and run the risk of doing a nest check once per day just to monitor them more carefully, or should I just foster them under society finches and aim for parent raised strawberry finches in my F1 and F2 generations? Maybe after a few successfully raised foster clutches, I'll let the original parents try again...

Whoo, that's a nice wall of text, my gratitude to anyone who actually reads all this.

[Sally]

Personally, I would give them another chance. They were pretty much doomed to failure with 9 eggs in a clutch and then only one hatchling. Often, birds won't feed a single baby--nature tells them they need to be more productive, so they will abandon this single baby and normally start another clutch. Since you removed the nest, they were not stimulated to start the next clutch.

It is always a catch 22 with nest checks. If you check, they may abandon, but if you don't check, you miss the opportunity to save eggs/babies. I don't do nest checks on my Strawberries (at least not intentionally lol). It means I may miss the fact that parents aren't feeding, but usually it means that the parents go on to raise the clutch without my interference. Whether to use Societies to foster is a personal choice, and definitely if they would continue to abandon, but I'd let them try at least one more time. I try to give parents three chances before I give up on them.

As far as the Repti-glo lights, I have used the Repti-glo 2.0, which has a CRI of 98 (perfect) and a kelvin rating of 6700 (too high). I haven't yet found information on the kelvin rating of the 5.0, except one place that said 21000, which seems unbelievable. At any rate, I have discontinued the use of the reptile bulbs. When I first started using them, all my males went into breeding plumage, and I was thrilled. But it took me a long time to realize that they were staying in their breeding plumage, not molting into eclipse plumage, and then their feather condition began to deteriorate. Lighting for reptile terrariums is not what birds need IMO.

Strawberry males in captivity tend to take longer to molt than in the wild, I believe. They also often only partially molt into breeding plumage. It is difficult to get a male Strawberry finch into the same bright coloring that you see in photos of birds in the wild. Only with lots of exposure to natural sunlight will they get that brilliant coloring. I haven't used Featherfast, but I would think it would be worth a try.

As far as diet, my Strawberries have never shown much interest in mini mealworms, except perhaps while feeding young. With freeze-dried bloodworms, I always mix them in with egg food, so they don't blow all over the cage bottom. Some of my Berries love f/d bloodworms, but I have a few pairs that hate them, will not touch their egg food if I mix f/d bloodworms into theirs. All my Berries do love egg food and feed LOTS of it to young. In fact, if I let the egg food dish get empty or even low, they would stop feeding--they must be assured that there is a plentiful supply of food.

Once they have babies to feed, they also eat a lot of spray millet. I don't bother soaking it. They also love soaked seed, which I usually mix in with the egg food, along with veggies. I also feed a mineral mix, with eggshells added, and they really go after the eggshells.

I hope I have helped answer some of your questions. I have found that with most Berries, giving them lots of privacy (plastic plants in the cage and around the nest), lots of egg food, and lots of coco fiber and white feathers to build their own nest usually works. Most couples will pair up and bond, but I have had a few pairs that never hit it off.

[isobea]

I agree with Sally. I would definitely give them a second (and third) chance. I usually don't allow my birds to raise more than four (maybe five) babies at a time. Even with very devoted and experienced parents I worry that they 'spread themselves too thin'. If your strawberries should lay a lot of eggs again, I would suggest taking some and having them fostered. That way your strawberries could gain some experience with a manageable number of kids and you would have the extras as kind of an insurance should the strawberries not do a good job.
Just something to think about.
Iso