My daughter´s finches

[Kitekeeper]

Hi,

Sometime ago my daughter asked me to have a pair of Zebra finches.

She lives with me and our small parrots (budgies, peachfaced lovebirds, linneolated parakeets and a single pacific parrotlet) but was enchanted by the funny little zebra finches.

My girlfriend helped me to find the birds and we have got the couple of my daughter´s choice, carefully chose by their colors and mutation. They are their first ever pet and I encouraged her to allow them to breed. I know that as much as there are tons of information and videos in the internet, nothing really substitutes a first hand experience. After six months they put five eggs and today two of them hatched!! I was expecting just one baby, but seems the number two baby was eager to get out one day earlier.

Below the link for the two babies:

Here are the parents:

It is not my first time breeding birds, but it is my first time breeding finches. Any advice is welcomed.

Thanks

 

[Scott]

Beautiful parents, hope all eggs hatch with healthy chicks!

 

[Noahs_Birds]

Zebra finches are an awesome place to start for any budding finch keeper. I started off with Zebbies years ago and 3 pair suddenly turned to 30 birds in a matter of months - extremely prolific!

Zebs will basically breed on seed, water and grit so don’t have to be too fancy with their needs but it is wise to in order to produce some good quality Young the addition of extra supplements like baked chicken eggshells, dry commercial egg and biscuit mix, corn, Lebanese cucumber, leafy greens such as endive and kale and they’ll be happy little zebbies!

Make sure there are no breezes or dampness around the birds, finches are very sensitive and will fluff up and drop off the perch very easy, but, zebs are as tough as old boots so not too much of a worry compared to other species like Gouldians etc.

Best of luck with them all! Who knows, your daughter might get hooked on breeding birds like I did!

 

[Kitekeeper]

Thanks Scott and Noah!

3 pair suddenly turned to 30 birds

Wow! Quite impressive! How long it takes to them to reach sexual maturity?

wise to in order to produce some good quality

Thanks, fresh vegetables are available for them. I admit it worries me a bit to offer green leaves as they might contain pesticide, I just don´t trust the local market. I am afraid the babies are more sensitive to that.

zebs are as tough as old boots

I´ve read in an old book that zebs are the only bird able to drink water with sodium chloride

Best of luck with them all! Who knows, your daughter might get hooked on breeding birds like I did!

Thank you! It would be great to give her something she identifies herself and produce great memories at the same time.

 

[Kitekeeper]

Today the third chick hatched, also one day earlier than expected.

I was also able to confirm the parents are feeding the babies. They are sooo tiny that it was difficult to roll them over to check their craw. Below the evidence, as the little yellow area in the craw

....and a picture of the couple, they are so cool as they don´t mind the nest was made for budgies...

 

[Kitekeeper]

Thanks Scott, LaManuka and fiddlejen!

Today the fourth chick hatched, but baby n.1 was found dead in the early morning... It appears the parents are begining to miss some mouths as its craw was empty. One of the three remaining babies was kind of lethargic, so I intervened in the fiddlejen style.

Every two hours I check them and fill any empty craws with formula. Then let the parents continue to feed them. The first session got me three clients, the second session two and the last session just one client as its siblings were well fed by the parents.

 

[Noahs_Birds]

Zebs reach sexual maturity around 2 months after fledging and will breed even when they haven’t obtained full plumage.
Might be wise to leave the babies alone a few days and not inspect the nest, I very rarely check finch nests as a lot of species snap and throw chicks out very easily. First time breeding pairs of finches will usually loose a couple chicks if not loose the whole lot so don’t be worried too much if you loose a few, they’re always better the next time round.

 

[Kitekeeper]

Thank you Noah! I will try to not mess this up, but I also promised my daughter to help her babies.

 

[Kitekeeper]

Time to update you, guys!

Well, things went as best as they could....regardless we had some setbacks.

The parents did a wonderful job considering it was their first clutch. All five babies were born, but we had three losses so far.

Baby n.1 was the first loss in the very same day baby n.4 was born. Baby n.1 was 3 days old and was found dead at the morning. He had an empty craw, so I started to handfeed the remaining 3 as a precaution even so they remained in their parents custody.

The parents accepted my care very well, nobody was abandoned or tossed out of the nest. Baby n.5 was born and two days later (at three days old) baby n.3 was found dead. No empty craw, it was my impression it was accidentally suffocated by the weight of parents and siblings over its head. That was the same fate for baby n.5 at the age of five days old.

So, with just two remaining, babies n.2 and 3 I took them to a heated box and took their custody from the parents. They are doing well, it has been almost a week that they are fed only by me, but they have a huge size difference. I wonder if anyone has already noticed that babies´ size with just one day of difference can be that much...

Below, babies with one, two and three days old

Then there were four plus two plastic eggs for support...

Two days later, (September 3rd) we lost another one and are down to three...

Handfeeding started, still in the nest with their parents care..

September fifth the bigger baby is 8 days old

September 8, the bigger one is 11 days old now

Their new nest (heated nestbox) with me

Babies n.2 and n. 3, today...how different they are in size with for babies born just one day apart

Today

 

[Kitekeeper]

Here is an update and a question. Today the remaining two babies are 38 and 37 days old, there is a huge development difference between them however.

If anyone has already experienced that, I would love to know more about it.

Here is Yuky which I believe is right where she is supposed to be regarding development age.

Down below we have Myiagi he is just one day younger than Yuky, but seems to me to be developing with a 15 days time lag.

They have been hand raised by me and are eating the exact same food and under the same heat source .... any clues?

 

[Scott]

Here is an update and a question. Today the remaining two babies are 38 and 37 days old, there is a huge development difference between them however.

If anyone has already experienced that, I would love to know more about it.

Here is Yuky which I believe is right where she is supposed to be regarding development age.

View attachment 31152

Down below we have Myiagi he is just one day younger than Yuky, but seems to me to be developing with a 15 days time lag.

View attachment 31153

They have been hand raised by me and are eating the exact same food and under the same heat source .... any clues?

Wonderful job despite a few sad losses.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Oh my goodness! Just saw this thread. My word they grew so big and fast! I always see Zeb's for sale at the pet store,always wondered if they could become companion fid's. So tiny and so sweet. You did a great job and sad by your losses. I think your daughter will learn and grow with this..I need to see more vid's! Especially of them flitting about


Jim

 

[Skarila]

Oh my goodness! Just saw this thread. My word they grew so big and fast! I always see Zeb's for sale at the pet store,always wondered if they could become companion fid's. So tiny and so sweet. You did a great job and sad by your losses. I think your daughter will learn and grow with this..I need to see more vid's! Especially of them flitting about


Jim

Thanks for digging this out, this is such an lovely thread (minus the losses, ofcourse..)

I'd only add careful about the breeding cause as it was mention they multiply like my lost socks in the washer - one guy had also such a huge number of zebs in no time, he couldn't even sell them for 5 Euro per bird! He had to start giving them away as there were SO MANY. Imagine all the "meep mep meeps"

 

[fiddlejen]

I love the sounds finches make.

I have some friends with a flock of finches. They let the finches breed as they like, and when too many accumulate, they trade them to a local petstore. The sound of a whole flock of finches awakening -- they sound like a video game going off!

 

[Skarila]

I love the sounds finches make.

I have some friends with a flock of finches. They let the finches breed as they like, and when too many accumulate, they trade them to a local petstore. The sound of a whole flock of finches awakening -- they sound like a video game going off!

I ADORE how they sound, if I were a man I'd lose every bit of my manliness when I'd hear them... I loved watching them in a pet store when I was a kid. Oh, diamont doves too, they were my life long wish to have.

 

[Kitekeeper]

Thank you guys for the kind words

always wondered if they could become companion fid's

Indeed they can Jim! They are some of the sweetest birds I ´ve ever met. The little one (Myiagi) is incredibly cuddling, he even would rather to nest in my hand than eat when it´s time to feed him. If I let him loose, he will jump to my arms or chest all the way to my shoulder and sit there for hours! He still have not learn to eat by himself which worries me but he has definitely a slow rhythm metabolism...

they multiply like my lost socks in the washer

, the nestbox is already out of their view for miles

they sound like a video game going off!

My impression as well Jen!!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Thank you guys for the kind words


Indeed they can Jim! They are some of the sweetest birds I ´ve ever met. The little one (Myiagi) is incredibly cuddling, he even would rather to nest in my hand than eat when it´s time to feed him. If I let him loose, he will jump to my arms or chest all the way to my shoulder and sit there for hours! He still have not learn to eat by himself which worries me but he has definitely a slow rhythm metabolism...


, the nestbox is already out of their view for miles


My impression as well Jen!!

How many survived and are they zooming about now?


Jim

 

[Kitekeeper]

How many survived and are they zooming about now?

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately just one by now. Three days ago I fed Yuki (the bigger greyish baby) in the morning as I did everyday and had to leave the house for just 4 hours, when I came back she was almost dead and died in my hands. My daughter stayed in the house studying and said Yuki was just fine as always, she just did not see any difference.

Yuki was still handfed as she was not eating by herself yet. Albeit I put her cage close to her parents cage to let her observe them eating seeds, she never touched her seeds. She had at least two weeks to observe her parents... Despite that, I really don´t believe she died for not learning to eat by herself, as she was already a full grown finch and she obviously could wait 4 hours to have another meal... I am at lost so far about what the hell happened.

Anyway, Mr. Myiagi the little brown baby is still ok, but is an underdeveloped bird that seems so fragile that I can barely believe he is still alive. He is defying all odds and have my respect for that. I still have not figure it out how to make him learn to eat by himself. He still needs to stay in the nextbox with heat all day long.

Yuki flew graciously with a very calculated flight. Myiagi also flies, but he is a bit more shy as he is not that confident in his little wings.

 

[Noahs_Birds]

Sad thing about handrearing any finches is that young will sometimes just drop dead for no apparent reason. I’ve known a fair few people where the birds are going so well, and all of a sudden they have a fast decline and die.

 

[Kitekeeper]

Thank you Noah, that comforts me.