what to do with babies when they grow up?

[marina]

Hi,

i have a pair of white zebra finches, and 6 babies at the moment

i have lost of questions, since i don't know how to stop mom and dad finches to stop breeding. as soon as they raise one hatch, they start making another. they started with 1 baby, then 2 in next nest, and now i have 6. i guess next time they will have at least 20 babies!

another thing, these babies are everything except white! the oldest one (2 weeks older than the rest) is coloured like a swallow, gray back and white tummy... and it seems that all others will also be different colors....

before this, mom and dad birds had 3 babies, and they were all white (and a bit of beige and spots on two of them) i wonder where that color came from?

so, how should i keep these 8 birdies when they grow up? separate males from females? or parents in one cage, kids in other? (i want parents to stop breeding)

[The Outlaw]

I have a girlfriend that used to breed finches. It got so bad, that her neighbors wouldn't even open the door when she showed up. Everyone on her street had at least 2 of her baby birds.

I suggest you remove all nesting materials from the cage.

[Rue]

We didn't want to breed. We have 5 males of different species.

They all appear to be happy enough with the situation and there is very little aggression - and the little there is doesn't amount to anything problematic *knockonwood*.

[Gary B.]

im wanting to build a big flight aviary in my back yard and let the babies go in there...every once in a while i wouldnt mind putting some newbies in their for them to breed with and if it starts getting crowded i can always take babies to my local pet store and they would just give me store credit for the babies...of course thats just my little fantacy of things... someday i might actually do that

[Monica]

i have lost of questions, since i don't know how to stop mom and dad finches to stop breeding. as soon as they raise one hatch, they start making another. they started with 1 baby, then 2 in next nest, and now i have 6. i guess next time they will have at least 20 babies!

The easiest way to get two birds to stop breeding is to simply remove their nest, and any nesting materiel that they have in their cage. If that doesn't quite stop them, you can shorten their daylight hours by 4 hours a day. Such as, if they woke up at 7 am and didn't go to sleep till 8pm, you would now put them to bed at 6pm and wake them up at 9am... or however which way you'd want to go about that...

another thing, these babies are everything except white! the oldest one (2 weeks older than the rest) is coloured like a swallow, gray back and white tummy... and it seems that all others will also be different colors....

I don't know about finch mutations, though obviously, the parents must be hiding some mutations or else you would not be getting various colors in the chicks.

so, how should i keep these 8 birdies when they grow up? separate males from females? or parents in one cage, kids in other? (i want parents to stop breeding)

If you want to completely stop inbreeding, not allowing any of the chicks to breed with each other (highly ill advised, as I know most people wouldn't want to raise a family with their sibling or parent... can cause physical, or even mental problems in the chicks by this type of inbreeding), you need to separate them by sex. If the parents didn't stop breeding when you removed the nesting material and shortened their daylight hours, in the worst case scenario, you would have to separate them as well, though of course you would have to keep track of who was who, in case you'd ever want to put the parents back together and didn't want to cause inbreeding.

If you don't have the extra room for atleast 3 large cages (not those tiny cages, ones quite adequate for a finch to fly in, and for 5-8 finches, probably nothing smaller than 2' square for a cage) you could look into selling or giving away your finches, however to best prevent inbreeding, you either sell them in pairs of the same sex (male x male or female x female) or sell them seperately.

[Samm]

What?

[Tiki]

I would just separate the boys and girls and have two different aviaries. Baby birds are too tempting and too cute to part with, I don't know how breeders manage to do it!

[Freedomoflight]

White is not a diminante gene color in finches-so that is how you got muticolored babies.
I would seperate the babies, boys and girls, into seperate cages. Or sell them.
As for the parents laying eggs, remove the nest and all nesting material. But you most likely will still find eggs on the cage floor. Once zebras going its hard to stop them. Pull the eggs from the cage floor, and if they keep laying, put the net back in and give them artificial eggs.

[marina]

ok,

first, i have a rather small cage, maybe just enough for parents only.

i don't like the thought of selling my baby birds, i get attached to them, i celebrate their birthdays and everything...

i gave away 3 babies from past nests, to friends and neighbours, and yeah, all of them are avoiding me, too

nothing seems to stop parents from breeding, i already removed everything that could remind them from the cage, and they layed eggs in pots for seeds, on the floor, everywhere... and when i removed the eggs, the female was giving me THAT look, and she was searching for them, almost like begging me to leave them be.... so i did! i couldn't be that cruel

this time, they layed 6 eggs, and then simply abandoned them for few days. i just waited. and then, 5 more eggs, and they kept laying on all of them together. so now i have 6 babies, one is actually from that first 'serie', he's 2 weeks older then the rest. he's the grey one. now, i can see that two other babies will be light brown, and one will be white with dark head. the youngest 2 are still featherless but they are all very very noisy

anyway, the nest is now really overcrowded, it has space just enough for 2 babies, and all 6 are in it... actually it is one larger pot for seeds, but mom and dad instantly found it to be a great nest... so, i am waiting for older birdies to fly out, and get independant, so i could move them to another cage... it will be really crowded, but i wouldn't want to disturb them.

so, i guess i will get 2 larger cages, and separate boys from girls, also mom from dad. i am a bit afraid, what if they miss eachother?
and, can i keep these 2 cages next to eachother? won't they be alarmed by others? can i let them see and hear eachother?

[Monica]

You can keep the cages next to eachother, though it sounds as if you need to find SMALLER dishes for the birds to eat out of! Maybe even one they couldn't sit on but would still dispense seed? I know they have the ones that you put inbetween the cage bars (actually, I hate those), though can't think of anything else that could dispense seed so that the small end of it would be too small for a bird to sit on but would still allow for them to get at their food...

Also, try reducing the parents amount of daylight, as this will help force them out of the breeding cycle. You will need to cut their daylight hours as long as it takes to get them to stop breeding or as long as it takes for the hen to stop laying eggs. (females can indeed lay eggs without a male around) Though keep in mind, if the parents are not the only pure white finches, and you seperate all of them by sex, then it would be harder to keep track of the parents unless the parents have a band or 'bracelet' around one of their legs...