Finch Egg Incubation!

[JaeG]

I found a page that said once the chicks are 5-6 weeks old you need to remove them to stop them disrupting the parents who will want to nest again. The parents may become aggressive towards them and chase them away from the nest site. You could remove the nest at that time instead and hope the parents don't decide to nest in a seed cup.

Millet is a great first food for babies to start eating as the seeds are easy to crack so provide millet sprays once the babies are out of the nest (about 3 weeks old). They'll soon be copying their parents and eating by themselves.

Hope Pikachu and Poot are back to looking after their eggs.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Okay, so I guess I'll buy another cage? Or should I wait? Millet is easily accessed because I have so much Yup, they're back on again. Yay!

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Bad news or good news? I think its a little of both I moved her out today to count the eggs and there was only 7. I looked on the floor and there it was, a little egg. I was especially worried because the three pinkish eggs were still there... I took it out, and checked it... It is cracked, but not a huge crack or a small crack. It has blood, veins, the whole egg is red, but no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to spot the moving body. It might be better because if she does hatch them she'll have less chicks to worry about, but what do you think I should do?

 

[JaeG]

Maybe she knew something was wrong with it. It's a bit of effort required for them to roll an egg out of the nest, so that's probably the most likely reason.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Alright, I'm going to do an autopsy soon as see what was going on. Also, I don't think I mentioned that they have a canary nest, but they do. I'll be back with my autopsy, sure hope she didn't just roll it out for no reason.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

I feel awful. I did the autopsy.. It was an almost fully developed chick inside. It;s beak was starting to come in, it had little legs and wings, and only a tiny bit of space left for the yolk.. It was close to hatching.. Nothing seemed wrong.. Moltres did this once too, and I don't know why.. Poor thing.. Do you know what could've happened? I'm worried for the rest of the chicks futures.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Hey, wait! I'm pumped!!! I looked inside and the 4 fertile eggs all have veins and babies!! WOOOO! They were warm, and as soon as I put the nest back in she sat down, they might just hatch!

 

[JaeG]

Yay! All sounds good and three babies are a good number for a first time Mum. Sounds like you don't have too much longer to wait.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

If all goes well, four babies! I'm kind of upset now because of the death of one of my quail.. I know this has nothing to do with finch eggs, but would you have any advice on how to cope with the death? Yeah, now you're making me nervous about this whole thing X) What if she doesn't feed her babies?? I have school so I won't be able to all day! Also, I saw how tiny that baby was, how am I supposed to handfeed it even if I do have time! Should I hope for males or females or both? My baby cousin is coming tomorrow! Hopefully I can explain it to him. Again, thank you SO much! I don't know what I'd do without your guidance!

 

[JaeG]

We've lost a few chickens recently and it is hard. I'm still sad about them. You just have to know it's ok to be sad and miss them. Pets are important no matter how small.

I'm sure Poot will be a good mother finch especially seeing as Pikachu is so involved - that's a very good sign. My girls have only struggled when their partners haven't helped. Unfortunately I have two pairs like that!

It is very difficult to feed finch babies less than a week old. I tried with some of my Society finch chicks (the pair where the male is too busy singing and dancing to anyone who will listen) as they weren't being fed, but they didn't make it. I did have success feeding my Javas from a day old (after the mouse attack) but only because they are much bigger. I kept them in a cheap incubator and I had to feed them in there - if I took them out they wouldn't eat, even with a toasty hot water bottle under them!

It's good to have the hand rearing formula on hand just in case but hopefully you'll never need it. It keeps a year after it's best before date in the freezer in case I haven't told you that.

Keep me posted!