Not sure what to do

[jacannah]

Hi I had a male and female Zebra Finches the female laid two eggs. When the eggs hatched two weeks after they where born the male died. Leaving me with a female and her two babys. they are all doing fine the two young ones are now 4 months old. my female finch sits in her nesting box with the other male bird, leaves the other one out and chases her round the cage. noticed last week that my female adult finch has layed two eggs. She takes it in turns sitting on them with my baby male finch, occasionally letting the other female finch enter the nest. Didnt think she would lay as these are her babys I was told this couldnt happen. hope you can help very new to this and not sure what to do. Do i leave the eggs alone.

[Toddmin]

Are you are thinking the hen's male offspring mated with her? There is a chance she just laid infertile eggs.

You could either leave the eggs alone or toss them. It's up to you. Inbreeding is not encouraged (at least I don't encourage it), but it happens, and things could end up being OK.

[Sally]

Finches will definitely breed with their sons/daughters, especially when there is no other mate. You can toss the eggs, or you can let her go ahead and incubate and raise the babies. Mother/son is linebreeding, and is not that terrible as long as you don't let it continue. Eventually, you may want to separate the birds by sex, or your baby male and baby female may mate, and that is something you really don't want.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on breeding and especially the Zebra finch. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on.

[lovezebs]

jacannah

It is possible, even probable that Mother and Son mated, the eggs being the result. I would toss the eggs (jmo) and take out the nests, if you don't want any incest babies.

~Elana~

[jacannah]

jacannah

It is possible, even probable that Mother and Son mated, the eggs being the result. I would toss the eggs (jmo) and take out the nests, if you don't want any incest babies.

~Elana~

Hi lovezebs ty for your comment a friend of mine said remove the eggs and replace them with fake eggs. could i do this?

[Toddmin]

You could probably replace the eggs with fake eggs. You could also just pull the eggs instead and remove the nest.

Read Sally's post above regarding line breeding. Although I would not encourage inbreeding, mother/son line breeding is not an unheard of practice. As long as you don't continue line breeding the offspring, you should be OK.

[jacannah]

TY all for your help and advice very much appreciated