Questions about the babies and unhatched eggs.

livinonaprayer · Post by **livinonaprayer** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:51 pm

The zebra babies are nine days old now. There's three of them. How can I be sure the parents are feeding them all? The father seems to be the main feeder. One does look a lot bigger than the others.

Also, there are a lot of unhatched eggs in the nest. When can I remove them? It's getting crowded in there.

At night they're all in the nest. They won't hurt the babies by crowding them will they?

I sure regret now not getting the larger nest.
I feel sorry for them.

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:22 pm

The infertile eggs should be removed now.Hopefully with just three chicks they should be ok when it comes to being cramped...Are they in a basket?...not a box?
Chick sizes often vary...at nine days if they have made it to date the younger/smaller ones should be ok.
Paul.

chrischris · Post by **chrischris** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:02 pm

I agree you could take the eggs out or just leave them in there.

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:07 am

We typically remove infertile eggs when the babies start to feather up. We leave the infertile eggs until then to act like hot water bottles to help keep the chicks warm while the parents feed.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Thu May 01, 2008 5:42 am

I remove any infertile eggs asap, but thats my choice, I do know of others that leave them in until the birds have fledged

livinonaprayer · Post by **livinonaprayer** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:00 pm

Well it's good to know there's not a right or wrong way.
The family is in a small hooded basket and I was just worried about it being too cramped.
One is definitely bigger than the others and the father sits in the nest right next to him. Ahh, the proud father.
So I guess it's ok to wait until the little guys take off before cleaning the nest.
Thanks all for your input. I don't know what I'd do without you guys.