| Title: | Captive Breeding for Conservation--and FUN! |
| Notice: | INTROS 6.X / FOR SALE 13.X / Buying a Bird 900.* |
| Moderator: | VIDEO::PULSIFER |
| Created: | Mon Oct 10 1988 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jun 03 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 942 |
| Total number of notes: | 6016 |
Hi,
Over last weekend my finches hatched. The entire clutch of four
eggs.
The parents are feeding them but things are starting to change and
I wonder if it is normal.
For starters what I'm feeding is hard boiled egg, grated carrots
and finely chopped celery leaves and spinich. To this I add Neckton
S. They only seem to be eating the egg and some of the greens.
The parents have been feeding the babies well and now the female
is doing something strange. She is pulling feathers from the male
and looks like she is trying to build another nest or something.
The feathers that she does pull end up in with the babies. Is she
trying to keep the nest clean. She never cleans up the dropings
from the babies and it's getting pretty dirty in there.
Any suggestions on what is going on? I know that sometimes that
start to raise another clutch before they are finished with the
first and you should remove the male if this happens.
Should I remove the male?
By the way these a Zebra Finches.
Thanks,
Mark
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 161.1 | need more protein | SVCRUS::KROLL | Fri Apr 14 1989 18:01 | 3 | |
You need to feed some meal worms or there high protein food. I
used to feed the meal worms in a jar lid with a small covering of
raw wheat germ. they not only fed the worms but the germ also.
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| 161.2 | Mine do the same thing! | NYFS01::CHERYL | Cheryl McGinty | Mon Apr 17 1989 08:34 | 9 |
My zebras do the same thing. After the babies leave the nest I
toss it out. It gets pretty nasty....not worth cleaning. My one
female plucks the feathers from under tha male's beak (his chin??)
and the other goes for the back. They all seem to survive this.
Good luck with the babies.
Cheryl
321-5101
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| 161.3 | Help | POLAR::FERGUSON | Mon Apr 17 1989 16:50 | 4 | |
I have just bought two finches, male and female. When and how
can I tell if they are breeding.? Please help me out , thank you
for your time.
Betty
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| 161.4 | Oh, You'll know! | NYFS01::CHERYL | Cheryl McGinty | Tue Apr 18 1989 08:51 | 12 |
re -.1
If you have to ask, you probably haven't caught them yet. The male
jumps on the female's back and they let out a high-pitched chirp.
It over in a matter of a few seconds. 6 days later eggs, if the
eggs turn grey, in two weeks you'll have babie birdies and in two
more weeks they'll be flying. (That's for zebras, I don't know
about other finches).
Good luck,
Cheryl
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| 161.5 | You need nests first | AKOV12::SELESKY | Tue Apr 18 1989 12:17 | 16 | |
Betty,
You probably won't have breeding (and they definitely won't sit
on eggs laid on the floor) unless you specifically put in nests
(I use small bamboo nests bought at pet stores and give them nesting
material like dried grasses, straw, soft insides of cattails (plant),
shredded paper) hung from the top bars of your cage.
Finches may mate without the nests in their cages
but mine have never laid eggs without the nests and nesting material
being in their cages. If they do lay eggs without nests, they won't
be sat on so won't hatch. If you don't want them to breed, don't
buy them nests and they won't sit on or hatch eggs. By the way,
my cordon bleu finches take only about 1-2 days to lay eggs once
they've mated! They're sitting on eggs now!
Sandy
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