Do I have to take Mom & Dad away from Offspring?

[Missy54]

My Zebra Finches had their 1st babies (3) in May. All have thrived & are doing well. I think I have 1 male and 2 females although one of them is a cream color & is just getting some spots on her tail, but no orange on her face. I took all the nesting material out so Mom & Dad would not nest again. I love all 5 of them and I bought a nice big cage for them. Do I have to separate them or will they start breeding together? The other question is that the cream colored one the last 2 days keeps trying to pull on everyone else's tail feathers. Does this mean something I should be concerned about? They have a little bath tub that they use everyday, but they do seem to be picking at themselves a little more than usual.

[asianphan]

Mine I seperate them when the babies beak are yellow so that the parent can breed again. Dont take it out when their beak still black because they do not know how to eat at that point.

[cvrchota]

I'm not an official canary breeder so I don't remove the babies... I currently have 3 babies (two mothers)... the oldest (pictured) has been flying around for about a week now... his mother, meanwhile, has moved on and is sitting on an egg in another nest--this is what i found this morning... the baby found his mom and climbed into bed with her... Never too old to cuddle with your mom!

[debbielabella]

I love that picture! I had to separate mom and dad after first clutch because they wanted to keep breeding clutch after clutch. The babies are all in a separate flight until spring though because the father started fighting with the male. In a couple of months the male will need to be separated, seems only the girls get along well. The couple that bred are back together again but no nest, and mom still wants to make a nest in the food dish but as long as she has finally stopped laying eggs I like to keep them together because the male still feeds her and they groom each other and it is true love.. hope it stays that way for them. In spring I will need to separate them again unless I want a 100 canaries, all the males in separate huge flights I will need a bigger house..

[rainefeather19128]

I would not remove babies untill i see them eating,drinking and caring for themselvs on their own.my hen was mostly the one chasing the fledglings around.(on both sets of mine.)
just because the hens seem to be behaving doesn't mean they won't fight.my two girls are driving me and their mother nuts.they constanly scream and sometimes pull feathers from another.
the males fight but not as bad,they seem to have an order picked out now.they don't scream,they just hiss,peck,and it's over with.not too much feather pulling lately.

cvrchota- I love the picture :)

[debbielabella]

sorry.. I was referring to canary compatibility not zebra finches, which are the subject of this thread.

[Missy54]

It sounds like the main concern is that if they start fighting I need to divide them up. I think for now I plan to keep them together and if fighting starts I will divide. I don't want anymore babies at this point so I think I will remove any eggs that get layed. I have only had 1 so far and it was broken--there is no nesting material in the cage.