Help with baby falling or thrown out of nest.

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Tue May 13, 2008 11:58 am

Our Society Finches laid 5 eggs and this morning we found a hatchling that in our opinion was thrown out of the nest along with the shell of the egg. We put it back in the nestbox but are concerned it could happen again. Our cage is quite large for an indoor finch cage. We have 2 Society Finches, 3 Spice, and one Bronze wing. Does anyone have any ideas on why the baby was thrown out? Or any suggestions on how to prevent this in the future? Any advise would be GREATLY appreciated.

Post by **Sally** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:13 pm

There are many reasons for a tossed baby--parents are inexperienced, baby is not normal, parents feel nest and babies are threatened, parents decide food supply is not sufficient, etc. Societies are usually good parents. Sometimes, babies get dragged out of the nest accidentally when the parents fly out. That is one reason to not disturb the nest too much. Do the other birds show any interest in the Society nest?

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Tue May 13, 2008 12:25 pm

Yes, the other birds have shown interest in the nestbox. Before the eggs were laid it was where they all gathered at night to sleep. After the eggs were laid, the parents threw everyone else out. The other birds are now sleeping on a perch. There are 2 other empty nestboxes which they show no interest. Since we put the baby back in the nestbox it seems the parents are feeding it but not positive. The parents are really going after an egg mixture recipe found in a forum at this site. This is the parents first clutch.

SamanthaL · Post by **SamanthaL** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:26 pm

I would say I is because it's the parents first clutch and the other birds still want the nest.
just my opinion.

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Tue May 13, 2008 9:42 pm

Sally is right. . .It could be lots of things.

From the sound of it the chick was knocked out by accident. It is rare for Society finches to be poor parents and toss chicks intentionally. The Bronze Wings and Spices tend to be very easy going passive species so I'd be suprised if they had much to do with it.

If the parents are really hitting the egg food then they are most likely feeding the chick.

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you. Keep us posted.

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Tue May 13, 2008 10:16 pm

Unfortunately 2 more babies were on the bottom of the cage tonight. One dead, one alive. There is one live baby and 2 unhatched eggs left out of 5. We are going to look into hand feeding if it is even possible. It is so sad to lose the babies. It is awful to see the 3 babies suffer. We need to do something about this....

Post by **Sally** » Tue May 13, 2008 10:27 pm

So sorry you are losing babies. It is the down side of breeding finches--it is almost a given that you will lose some along the way. As fairestfinches said, Societies are usually good parents, so perhaps they are very young. If you decide to handfeed, there are excellent articles at the Finch Information Center, linked at left. Also read Hilary's thread about Blue-capped Cordon Bleu chicks under Breeding--she used the application tool that comes with leg bands to supply the food, but if you are new to finches, you probably don't have one of these tools.

fairestfinches · Post by **fairestfinches** » Tue May 13, 2008 11:25 pm

Hi, Keith!

First let me say that I would be careful about housing societies and spice finches together as they are known to hybridize. I have a close friend who now has 7 society-spice juvies -- they look like societies but are a pretty pied "spice" color.

Second, if you're still finding hatchlings on the bottom of the cage, then there's either something wrong with the hatchlings or the societies are being spooked out of the nest and are accidentally dragging the hatchlings out with them. If possible, I suggest moving the societies and the nest with chicks into a separate cage and seeing if that resolves the problem.

Michele

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Wed May 14, 2008 5:14 am

I have to agree with Michele, try putting your other birds into another cage and see what happens then

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Wed May 14, 2008 9:34 am

We are very thankful for this information. We have an hour drive to the nearest pet supply store. The baby that was alive last night is on the bottom of the cage dead. There are 2 more eggs unhatched. We are going to the pet supply store this morning.

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Wed May 14, 2008 10:13 am

This is funny... We have a link to your website and had seen pics of your avairy and birds before we joined this forum & didn't even realize it was you. When we saw you were from Springfield we got so excited but it is the wrong Springfield, durnit! We are going to Springfield MO today, not IL. Wish you were in MO! We'd be so happy. There are no bird avairies around here, not even a petshop unless we go to Springfield, MO!!!!!! Eventually, when we are not renting we might want to have a small avairy outdoors or in a sunroom... just a nice thought!

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Help with baby falling or thrown out of nest.

Help with baby falling or thrown out of nest.

Fairestfinches