Found three eggs...

[birdyland]

Found three broken eggs this morning on the bottom of my finche's cage...

I figured it would happen eventually, but Micro & chip are only about 7/8 months old.

I do not provide nesting materials. I don't have supplies to deal with babies. I never intended to breed these guys, but was very aware I was given a pair. I'm just glad I didn't have to make the call this time to toss fertile eggs, as they were broken.

Here's some questions:

-How many eggs in a typical "clutch"?
-They have a cuttle bone and are fed calcium rich foods. Should I supply anything else?
-How many eggs until I should be worried for a poor worn out little female?

[Gary B.]

hey,
sorry to hear the eggs where broken. my finches are in the process of raising 5 chicks, some of which are now out of the nest and the others to follow soon. my male is only a few months old. maybe around 5-6. not really sure because he came from a pet store but didnt have all his color and his beek was still black (Zebra finch). cuttle bone is good for calcium and i also use egg shells (they love it). not sure how many eggs before you should be worried about her waring *sp* out. what im doing is letting her raise a clutch, then when the last baby leaves the nest, im going to take the nest out of the cage. then wait until the babies are out of the cage and give her a few weeks. because finches just "need" to breed i will then but the nest back in. this way i will know she was able to rest a little between clutches. i have had finches in the past that wouldnt even wait for the last baby to be out of the nest before they decided to start another clutch. good luck i hope i helped
gary b

[Rowan123]

Dana,
I know what you mean about being thankful the eggs were broken. I'm always glad when I don't have to intentionally throw out a possibly fertile egg. If you don't want to breed your finches you are doing the right thing by not providing a nest or nesting material. Continue with the cuttle bone and Gary gave you a good suggestion about the egg shells. If you are concerned with her calcium intake you can also buy a supplement like Calciboost that can be put in the water. A typical clutch can be anywhere from 2 to 6 eggs. There is really no way to get her to stop laying the eggs. She may lay a few and then take a break for a week or so and then lay more. The part that really exhausts finches is the raising of the chicks, that's a lot of work to keep them fed.

Gary - You might want to give your pair a longer break of a month or two between clutches. In most of the books I've read they suggest no more than 3 clutches a year with breaks in between.

[Gary B.]

thanx for the info...month or so sounds good to me... i didnt really know what part would be the hardest on them..i just figured that they where going to lay i might as well let them.. but now that i know that raising the babies is the wearing out part ill let them have a longer break.

[Rowan123]

Originally Posted by Gary B.

thanx for the info...month or so sounds good to me... i didnt really know what part would be the hardest on them..i just figured that they where going to lay i might as well let them.. but now that i know that raising the babies is the wearing out part ill let them have a longer break.

Just a suggestion Gary. I think it's like us humans; making the babies is the easy part, the work really starts when they're born! BTW, your Quaker is so adorable! How do your kids get along with him?

[Gary B.]

they like him, but he is starting to cling to just me. so now we need to work more on socialization skills. that does make since about the finches and raising kids. i thought the laying eggs where what wore the hen out. but i know raising my kids is wareing my me and my wife out.

[ARS8birds]

My finch Joey, who I had thought was a boy when I bought her, turned out to be a girl, I found out because- she laid an egg.
Everysince then, she like, has a "period" or something and on the 15th-17th, and egg is laid everyday. I never actually gave her nesting material or anything until she laid eggs off this schedule, which indictated to me that Jester and Joey were trying to breed. Long story short, baby hatched today, I'm thriiled, excited, estatcic, etc.

Please be advised that even if you sepearte the pair, your female may very well lay infertile eggs like Joey does. Provide plently of Calcium, and make sure she has a well balanced diet. Supplement vitamins if it's neccessary.

[Freedomoflight]

Gary B- your finches beak was still black? That means your finch was still an itty bitty baby, we are talking maybe a month and a half at the most! Its not safe to let a female breed that young!
Birdyland- your finches are gonna keep laying, LOL. I mean, you have a pair, you have had eggs.... If you do NOT want to breed them put them in seperate cages. I am assuming we are talking about zebras here, so I am going to address it that way. I have gone throught the whole OMG babies thing myself. I started out with 1 pair of zebras, and I ended up with cages all over the house full of babies, LOL.
Having cuttlebone and calciukm enhanced food is good, I wouldnt add anything else since you dont want to OD the little mommy. The typical clutch on zebras can be anywhere from 5-10. Its usually more around five, but I had a hen have 12 eggs in a nest at once.
If you DO intend on letting the hen raise chicks, the first clutch usually does not survive. What I do is let her have a learning experience with the first clutch, let her lay a second clutch, those babies usually make it, mine did, then take the nest out and seperate male from female. Give them a couple months break, put the male and female back in the same cage, give them a nest, and let them have another clutch. Usually a 3-4 month break inbetween clutches is good. You can let her double clutch, so let her have two clutches in a row, then give her a break, but you will have to give her a 5-6 month break instead of a 3-4 month break.
When the male and female are seperated, be sure to still give the female extra calcuim, she will probably at first lay infertile eggs, but dont give her a nest or access to any type of things she might portray as nesting material. Also regulate her day/night. Give her more periods of darkness then the male, and doing all that should not have her lay infertile eggs.
hope this helps

[Gary B.]

actually that was the male that was young..the female was an experienced breeder....

[Freedomoflight]

*whew* scared me for a sec. I myself picked up two baby finches, both with black beaks and lol, about half the size they are now, arent they cute? Those little meeping sounds....