My finches, having just weaned their babies, are at it again. I removed an egg yesterday but today Mum is trying to hatch a second. I got her off her nest while I was cleaning the cage, pinched the egg and I have just hard boiled it (Mum's suggestion - she used to do it when she bred pigeons) and replaced it.

I feel really rotten though because mummy bird is back on the nest, trying to hatch her egg.

Awwww- I'm sorry to hear that this is necessary parcher. Is there no way of either finding a regular way to rehome the babies or to have them living in single sex groups so they don't have fertile eggs in the first place? (forgive me if that sounds cruel and finches have to be kept in male/female couples, I've never kept finches and that's the logical way to stop most other animals from having babies).

We had a cockateil that even though she didn't live with a male, she kept laying eggs and trying to hatch them. So I don't know if living in single sex groups would work...

We ended up rehoming her to someone with a handicapped child who loved to watch birds and used to have an avery full until some swine opened it and let them out in the night. He was starting again so we gave him our Primrose.

I know that's not an option for you Parcher, but I hope you do find some sort of solution for her. I know our's was quite unhappy trying to hatch infertile eggs :(

Might salve your conscence a bit Parcher to buy some fake finch eggs for her to sit on.

Unfortunately, zebra finches are the feathered version of the proverbial rabbit! They literally believe in anytime, anywhere! The usual way, so I understand, is to remove all nests and potential materials. With other birds, you substitute fake eggs for the real ones. However, I still have babies who all still sleep in the nest, so I don't want to take it away just yet. They also share the cage with two Bengalese finches who have their own nest, who would probably lose it to 5 zebras. The other thing is that zebras have been known to make a nest in a seed pot! Even as we speak, with no nesting materials in the cage, the idiot male is trying to carry a millet spray up into the nest!

Much as I want to keep my birds, there is a major possibility that I shall have to rehome them all pretty soon anyway, so I am on the lookout for anyone who would like some birds. I am also going to have to rehome two budgies as well. It is going to break my heart to lose them but there is no choice unfortunately.

In the meantime, I shall just have to continue murdering babies. At least she gets to sit on something to keep her out of mischief for a while!

Is it ethical to rear them & release them?

:confused: Just a thought here...

The bumf I read suggest that they would not survive in the wild.

As to the egg, well, the zebras and the bengalese finches had a fight over who was going to take a millet stalk into their nest and the egg fell out of the nest. The millet stalk being the length that millet stalks are, would not actually go in anybody's nest!

All the birds have now been rehomed, so that is the problem over with. I don't half miss them though.