I need help this is sad

[JohnPeter]

I have three zebra finches and one gouldian finch they all live in peace, the lady finch put three eggs and we had two chicks, the chicks are now gone they are not on the bottom of the aviary they aren't anywhere, did they get eaten how is this possible??

[monotwine]

Welcome to the finch forum.

Sorry you lost your baby finches.
Do you have an outdoor aviary? Is it possible you have a predator? from a big spider or reptile to snake and mice?

Otherwise did the birds not flick the babies out that you could not see them. How big were they? very new born or already have feathers.

[JohnPeter]

My aviary is in some sort of greenhouse, there are no predators here... The babies had little feathers on the head and on the back could finches eat baby finches? Otherwise the only thing that could happen is that they skillfully picked the babies and threw them outside the aviary through the metal grade but it's so hard to do that.

[Sally]

The finches would not have eaten the babies. If they were just starting to get feathers, they would have been small enough to fit through 1/2" spacing on the aviary, depending on the exact spacing--1/2x1 or 1/2x2?

Rats will eat babies, I believe, and snakes love babies, are you sure one couldn't have gotten in? So sorry you lost those babies, but I feel they may have been either eaten by a predator or tossed outside the aviary, where a predator could have gotten them.

[monotwine]

I too think you may need to look for a predator. It is most likely that. Maybe a nocturnal one you don't see. Snakes are very good at not being found.

[JohnPeter]

Impossible to have a predator here, the only thing that could come in here, this is an appartment, are bats. But if they managed to toss the birds out of the aviary my dog could have easily eaten them...

[Smurf]

Could they have buried them in nest under nesting material ?

[JohnPeter]

No smurf, i'm gonna assume they managed to toss them to the ground and my dog ate the birds, are you sure they can't eat the baby birds? I've got a picture of them they were like this.

http://postimg.org/image/72rvm4sq9/

[monotwine]

JohnPeter those a very young newly hatch chicks when they all fluffy like that. It is possible at that age that if they were tossed then they could fall through the bars of the cages and yes possibly be taken by any other animal. It is very unlikely the parents ate their babies.
They sometime mutilate babies, but I've never experienced finches eating theirs. If you had quail in the aviary I'd say they would have eaten a fallen baby, but not the adult finches.

[JohnPeter]

Ok monotwine, why do they toss the babies? Should I put the babies in another bird cage and raise them myself next time?

[Sally]

Birds may toss because they don't feel there is enough or adequate food for their babies, or they may be young and inexperienced and don't know what to do with them, or they may have reasons of their own that are beyond our understanding. I'd give the parents another chance. They can't learn to be good parents if they don't get a chance.