White Zebra Finches - do their eggs differ from reg. finches ?

[Laura & Baby Emily]

I have a male masked white finch & a silver cream masked female finch.

They are very dedicated 'parents' to two eggs laid on December 21 & December 22. They then rejected the first egg (twice), but continue to care for the Dec. 22nd egg around the clock. They also built the most elaborate nest I've ever seen. It's been an honor to watch them.

Well, my question is that the egg looks different than what I typically have seen for regular zebras, and I was hoping that maybe white zebra eggs look different.

Their egg is longer and more slender than I have ever seen. I have not candled it as they are constantly tending it, and I might as well wait a couple more days, than disturb them. However if I shine a flashlight on the egg as it lays in the nest, is glows yellow, but I can't tell if there is baby in there. But I do know the egg they rejected turned blue.

The baby is due to hatch on January 2/January 3rd if there is one. But could someone please help me understand more about these birdies. Would they work so hard, throw one egg out, keep the second one - treating it like royality, if it wasn't viable ? It's amazing how they are caring for this egg. I was hoping it was because they could feel the little one inside while they roosted. Please tell me what you think ?!

Laura, Natalie & Nesta and Naomi & Noah (and future nestling ?) finches

[Monica]

If the egg hasn't darkend then it's infertile and wont hatch. Zebra finch eggs should not differ, so this egg may be deformed, which it sounds like. Deformed eggs are normally caused by a lack of calcium in the mother's diet. It could possibly be caused by other problems as well.

[Nasal_Tufts]

You said the other egg they disguarded turned blue, it was rotten and they knew it and kicked it out. In chickens longer more slender eggs means it's a rooster, round eggs mean hens. This is also true for pigeons and doves. I don't know if it applys to parrots and finches ect. I have yet to find out. So it it does hatch it could be a male, but it doesn't sound fertile.

[Monica]

I hadn't heard, nor seen (used to collect chicken eggs for someone, and there were pigeons there as well), anything mentioned about longer/slender eggs being males and rounder ones being females.

Normally though when an odd shaped egg is hatched, there is normally something wrong with the hen to form an egg such as that. Some eggs are even created small without the yold or because the hen didn't have enough calcium.

[Nasal_Tufts]

Yep it's true. I had mostly roosters hatch out last year. So this year I put most of the longer eggs in the fridge to eat and only incubated the round eggs and now I have mostly hens running around my yard. With doves and pigeons they only lay 2 eggs in each clutch. One egg is more round then the other and that's almost always the hen and the more pointed egg is almost always the cock. Now sometimes you get two pointed ones or two round ones. Which are almost always two cocks or two hen. Although when you have this sometimes the parents will starve one or kill one because their job each time they raise a clutch is to raise a pair (male and female) of pigeons.