Inbreeding of finches

[ilovetomp]

I am new (duh) to this chat room. I have several questions and I am reading so many articles, however, I am still confused.

This is the first set of eggs that my society finches have laid. I have one nest and four birds, they all sit in the nest, which I am hoping that they are doing this to incubate the eggs. I could not tell you which is which; however, it appears to be about 4 or 5 eggs. I am going to wait out about 21 days to see if I hear anything or see new activity from my finches.

I am going to put another nest in the cage; but is it too late? Four birds fit very fine in the nest and they are so adorable.

If the eggs do hatch (I do not want to disturb the birds to see if they are fertilized eggs or not- I will just wait it out), once the birds are about 3 weeks old, should I separate the birds (babies from adults). Is there such a thing as inbreeding in birds (I am sure there is). But, once I remove the young ins, won't the young ins breed Also, can they ever be re introduced to their parents

This is so confusing, or am I making it more difficult than it really is?

I know I will have more questions and will post later.

I thank you all for any suggestions.

[Sally]

Societies tend to all pile in one nest, rather than sleep one pair to each nest. I wouldn't bother putting another nest in the cage just now. If there are only 4-5 eggs, chances are you have just one hen in the group, and because they are Societies, all four will probably participate in raising any babies that hatch. Be sure to start feeding the birds egg food, as that is one of the best foods that parents can feed to their babies.

Yes, finches will inbreed, so not only will you need to separate the babies from the parents as soon as they are weaned, you will need to separate the boys and girls by the time they are about 3 months old. The only way you can reintroduce them would be to maintain male only and female only cages. Societies love to raise babies, so you will want to control that anyway, unless you have a way to rehome extra birds.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on breeding, diet, and the Society finch. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on.

[Sheather]

Hello ilovetomp

I have nine societies, and I have a bonded brother-sister pair bond. I still allow these bonds to take place, and let these birds nest, but I discard their eggs to prevent inbreeding. You could just do the same later on if you want to keep all the birds together without breeding.

[MiaCarter]

I'm in Sheather's camp.

I do not separate according to gender, nor do I separate the kids from the parents just because they're related.

Like Dylan, I have a brother-sister pair. They're super bonded and they don't like anyone else but each other. So they're mates. They have a little open sleeping nest. I doubt they'll lay in there, as my zebras have never taken to open nests. But if they did lay, I would simply pull the eggs.

Unlike dogs and cats and other animals, where they breed and you're stuck with progeny, it's easy to simply pull the eggs with birds, so I don't worry about inbreeding.

Of course, if I have a breeding pair, I make sure that there's no possibility of inbreeding. Even if you have a bonded pair, that's not a guarantee of monogomy. In fact, very few birds are truly monogamous. So it's wise to ensure that you don't have related birds of opposite genders in the same cage when there's actual breeding taking place. Especially with societies, who are very group oriented.

Separating by gender seems to be most popular among those who breed on a regular basis or have a large number of birds (as single-gender groups are more apt to be harmonious.)
Personally, I don't have enough birds to make that practical and I prefer to leave them as bonded pairs, as I believe they're happier like that. But that complicates cage dynamics (which is why those with larger quantities of birds may prefer single gender per cage.)

When separating juveniles from the parents, you must be sure they're fully weaned and that means eating AND drinking. The drinking is usually the last thing to occur and you must see it happening before you separate them.

I would also consider banding them as societies can be tough to tell apart, especially with self varieties.

[ilovetomp]

Awesome. I thank you.

I love the fact that societies just love to raise babies. I think that is so awesome. So, I will let them do this one time and then the next time I will remove the eggs.

I know that sounds so heartless. But, I really do not want any four legged birds being born.

This will not affect the temperament of the birds will it? I do not know how attached they become to their eggs.

Thank you so much. And, it so awesome to have a community who loves birds, too.