Babies, a fledgling and parents.

zookeeper78 · Post by **zookeeper78** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:50 pm

Ok, I will try not to make this too long but I have a bit of a situation on my hands and haven't found any topics that are similar.

My Zebra pair had laid a clutch of eggs and I had 1 survivor who hatched on 8/16 or possibly the day before. A couple of days ater the female laid ANOTHER clutch of eggs. About a week ago the baby from the 16th fledged and the new clutch hatched with 3 babies resulting.

The fledgling was doing great until yesterday when one of the parents had started plucking him/her, not totally bald but back, chest and a few head feathers missing. I am not sure which parent did this but I watched them for quite a while and saw that dad would act fairly aggressive to it, and the chick would do a lot of yelling at dad, although dad would still feed it.

The fledgling has been spending nights in the nest with mom and the babies. Also while watching them I noticed the fledgling seems to mimic parenting behavior to the babies, like feeding although I am not positive it is actually feeding them, probably just mimicking.

Today I put dad in a separate cage to see what happens. Mom is feeding the newer babies, haven't seen her feed the fledgling but he/she seems to be feeding on its own, off the food on the floor and out of the dish as long as mom isn't around or she chases it away from the dish(she however completely seems to tolerate it being in the nest). If it has more feathers missing tomorrow, is it okay to put a fledgling by itself in a cage? I would reintroduce dad to mom and the babies. I am concerned about putting the young guy all alone in a cage when it seems quite bonded to the younger babies and I was hoping to separate all babies(the 1 older guy plus the 3 new) from the parents together when the new set is ready. Has anyone experienced something like this before? Thanks in advance for any help!!!!!!!

hilljack13 · Post by **hilljack13** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:14 pm

I'm guessing this is your first attempt on breeding finches. If so congrats on have one fledge.

First thing you may want to do is put the fledgling by itself and put dad back in the cage. It will be more stressful if mom does all the rearing. Second, (hopefully the other will fledge), remove the nest as soon as you see all out of it. Dont worry about them not having a place to sleep, they sleep on perches naturally.

Anyway, the plucking is just the parents way of fending off there new babies. Mine did this when I first started breeding finches. This is probably due to a smaller than recommended cage. Good luck.

Post by **Sally** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:56 pm

With Zebras, they often pluck their babies, that nest-building urge is so strong that they will take material from wherever they can get it! I would leave Dad by himself for now, Mom can handle 3 hatchlings and 1 fledgling without being overworked, and Dad may start plucking the hatchlings as soon as they start to feather out. The fledgling needs to be completely weaned and independent before it is separated, and it will do much better if it can be separated later with the other 3. If you don't want more babies, as soon as the babies are weaned, or even shortly after they have fledged, take that nest out.

zookeeper78 · Post by **zookeeper78** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:25 pm

Thanks for the tips, I am still conflicted with what to do. This morning before I left for work mom was chasing around the fledgling a bit and did grab a couple of feathers which made me wonder if may she is the one plucking it and not dad, but then again maybe it was both of them. I shredded up some paper towel and stuck that in the cage to give her something else to use if she is adding to the nest. At least the fledgling doesn't have any more significant bald spots like the previous 2 days. It sure has been much quieter in there since dad was separated, without all that bickering between him and the fledgling.

I was thinking of putting dad back in and taking the fledgling out but it is really very attached to the 3 babies. I just ran home for a few minutes from work to check on things and mom, fledgling and babies were all cozy together in the nest. All the paper towel I put in was stuffed into the nest also, behind and under the babies.

The others should fledge in about a week and as soon as they are weaned and ready they will all be separated and the nest is definitely coming out. I personally was hoping the clutch she laid right after the first guy hatched wouldn't be viable, but since that didn't happen and 3 did hatch I am kind of in a pickle.

This is my first attempt at breeding, I was curious to see if they would breed. I adopted them from a woman about 8 months ago and they had only successfully had 2 offspring in the 4 years she had them. I had given them a nest from the beggining and they would lay a lot of eggs, but never any actual hatches until now. And of course it couldn't be just one clutch but the 2, 1 baby hatched then, bam another clutch. I guess they didn't want to waste any time.