Trying to sex a mixed pair

[paulwhite]

Hello all,

A friend of mine recently decided he no longer wanted 2 finches he bought 8 months ago in a store. I have some prior experience with zebra finches, and when he showed up with these, I agreed to take them in. Only thing is, one is a zebra, and one is a society.

The zebra is a hen, but of course, the society has proven more difficult. I was pretty sure it was a cock, but now I'm not so sure. They nest together every night, and there have been eggs. They do not hatch and after a bit they toss them from the nest. They take turns sitting on the eggs while the other eats and excercises. The society is very vocal but I have not seen any courting behavior. It has been far more interested in lining the nest than the zebra.

Yesterday, I saw the society alone in the nest. It was moving in an odd way I had not seen before. It was grinding back to front repeatedly as if rubbing its belly against something in the nest. I checked and there are 3 eggs.

Do society finches move like that when laying? Is that something a male does to the egss? This could be the defining factor in sexing it.

Thank you for any advice.

[Sally]

paulwhite The only time I've ever witnessed one of my birds laying an egg, a Cordon Bleu hen dropped an egg while sitting on a perch. It looked fairly effortless for her, her body only displayed a slight pushing movement, otherwise she acted like nothing was happening at all. One thing you can do is check the nest every day. Since finches only lay one egg a day, if you find two fresh eggs in one day, you know you have two hens. Societies can be buggers to sex sometimes, but usually even a submissive male will sing when there aren't other males around. However, maybe because there aren't any Society hens around, he wouldn't feel the need to sing? Interesting question, hopefully someone else will have a better answer.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will many articles on finch care. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier later on for members to answer questions.

[cindy]

chart for sexing societies.....

[Stuart whiting]

I'm inclined to agree with Sally about the egg laying movement of the birds as I've quite often seen this with nesting canaries,

The only other time you may see this odd nest movement is when the birds are turning the eggs on a daily basis until they hatch,

Most birds that are nesting would normally rotate the eggs at least twice daily

[Dave]

Canary breeders separate their birds each fall, 1 to a cage. Then observe. If the bird sings well, it is a male and if it never sings it is (probably) a female.

The key, though, is to have 1 bird to 1 cage and observe for a week or two.

[Stuart whiting]

Dave

Exactly what all of us champion canary breeders do here in England, although we can normally sex canaries without having to rely on the song, IE bird movement and behaviour etc

[paulwhite]

Thank you ALL for the great advice. Given the above illustration and further observation, I'm pretty sure it's a cock. Given what I've read about the low chances of successful society-zebra hybrid mating, I've no real expectations that the eggs will ever hatch, and I'm content to just let them be healthy and happy.

-Paul