society finch mate died and shes on eggs :(

[broody rooster]

hello everyone im sorry to say that the mate of my society finch was found on the bottom of the cage dead today ( i believe from old age) and she is now sitting on 6 eggs and im unsure what to do. i have another pair sitting on five eggs and was thinking about just putting all of the eggs together and moving her in their cage but i dont want them to stop sitting or smother each others eggs i don't know what to do

 

[sourland]

Rather than risk losing both broods, I would be inclined to see if she will continue setting and feed her brood by herself.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Hey! Sorry for your loss. But the thing I would recommend doing is leaving her with the eggs and see how she does. I wouldn't give all the eggs to one pair because there would be alot and they might get stressed out. But, after she is done nesting, I would get her another male finch because if you moved her i with the other societies they might start to get aggressive over the eggs. See what she does while he's gone. If she does stop, I would check the eggs for fertile ones, and if any are fertile, take 1 or 2 that are the most grown, that way the other societies wouldn't have to deal with them for long. Hope this helps! Good luck!

 

[Pineapple]

I've had single society cocks raise eggs that weren't even theirs before (i.e. I had an excess of eggs, gave a few to a lone cock, and he raised them to adulthood). Society finches are amazingly good parents. The parental instinct kicks in and they would raise 10,000 babies at once if they could.

That's why breeders of finicky finch species (à la gouldians) use societies as foster parents all the time. From time to time you also see same-sex pairs of society finches who love raising babies. If I were you, I'd just leave the lone bird with her eggs and see what happens.