Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
My finches have laid 6 eggs, the last one being laid today, but they have not yet started incubating the eggs. What to do?
There is nothing at all for you to do. Birds will not sit on their nest until they have finished laying all the eggs they are going to lay. Once they are done laying the eggs in the nest this is the time they will start to take turns sitting on the nest to incubate the eggs. Nature has a way of handling all of this and the birds know when the time is right to sit on their eggs.
Most bird experts will tell you to leave things alone and let nature take its course. Birds are hit and miss parents and sometimes the miss is because they know the egg is not viable.
If you are really anxious about it, talk to your local vet and see if they can give you incubator guidance or a place that may be able to help with your needs (like a bird rescue), although if you are not in a bigger town you may not have these options.
Prayer for the featured family!
I have 4 finches; 3 females and 1 male. The four finches were in the same cage. The male mated with two of the females. Both females have their own nest and six eggs but one of the females kept coming out of her nest and chasing the other female through the cage so I turned around and set up a new cage and took two of the females and the eggs and put in the new cage.
The other female and male are still in their big cage with their eggs. The two females that I put in the new cage used to sit on the eggs and turn them. In the last 4 days they haven't gone in the nest to do anything with the eggs. What do I do or will the eggs be okay?It was good that you separated the females. If these eggs are viable, they will continue to sit on them. If not, that may be why they are not sitting on them.
If you are sure that they are not sitting on their eggs at night, then it looks like your finches have abandoned eggs. Eggs wont be viable.
Hovering about and tampering with their nest makes most finches very nervous and it causes them to abandon their nest and eggs. Generally, the more domesticated the species, the more tolerant they tend to be. Zebras finches usually allow nest inspections, but they can abandon eggs too. You should probably not risk move nest or make inspections with these finches in the future.
My finches have covered their eggs with the cotton. Should I remove the upper layer of the cotton or leave it on them. It's been a more than a week since they laid eggs.
Normally they recommend that you leave the birds, eggs, and their nest alone and allow them to take care of it themselves. I am not sure why there is cotton in the bird's cage and normally this is not what a person puts in their cages to build a nest. In some rare cases, it is necessary to help the young birds along by removing something that is dangerous to the birds from their nest.
I have a pair of Gouldian finches and the hen laid 7 eggs. One of which was broken while they were going in and out. All signs indicated that she was ready to incubate, but on day 7 she lost all interest in the nest. The male would go in and out for minutes and come out, but neither would lay in the nest. At night it was like the nest didn't exist.
I have four Society Finches that I just acquired that seem to be still fairly young and decided to try to put the eggs in their cage before I discarded the clutch in a last attempt to save the eggs. During the day all four Society finches take turns in the nest and at night all 4 would incubate, is this normal?
Are the eggs still considered to be incubated if the birds are constantly in and out during the day? It's like when one comes out the other goes in, but they are constantly rotating.
Should I leave them in there and just wait it out and see what happens? Will they even know what to do? None of the Society finches have eggs of their own nor have they had a previous clutch. However they became interested in the nest right away, how do I know they are incubating and not seeking warmth?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Eggs can remain fertile for up to a week without incubation. If 7 days pass, the eggs will not hatch.
My Gouldian pair has laid 4 (possibly 5 now) eggs. They take turns sitting on the eggs all day already, but do not sit on the eggs at night.
Is this normal for this stage? I'm not sure if they are done laying yet.
I would let nature take its course. I think you will have baby birds very soon.
Normally the birds can take care of the eggs on their own. There is no need to worry about this and the pair will handle it just fine.
my Gouldian has been sitting on their 5 eggs now for about close to 3 weeks and they just threw one out of the nest. and it did have a fully developed bird it. now they have stopped sitting on them . what do I do now?
I have 4 society finches. The female lays eggs continously and I have never had one hatch. They both sit to nest for 5 days or more but what I found is that they will throw them out of the nest if they're duds and at times eat the shell.
We have a couple of finches. They've laid 3 eggs, but they don't sit on them. It's been almost 10 days. How long does it take for the eggs to hatch?
They will sit on them when the last egg is laid.
In general, a finch will lay one egg a day until they lay 3 to 8 eggs. It takes about 14 days for the eggs to hatch. However, the eggs will not hatch if they haven't been incubated. You can find some very helpful information regarding finch care, breeding, etc. at
www.zbirds.com/Breeding.html
This is my friend's favorite site for finches. animals.mom.me/
He said they are very private and if a human is too helicopter (hovering nearby and watching, talking, poking, etc.) it upsets them and that can impact them caring for their eggs. Just to best let them be and only intervene if there appears to be a crisis.
Good luck! Post pics when they hatch!
Normally the female will need to lay the last egg before the birds will start to sit on the nest. In some cases, if the male has not fertilized the egg the female will just lay the eggs and leave them. This doesn't happen often. But if the female is no longer laying eggs and it has been 10 days as you say, it is more than likely they won't sit on these eggs. I'd give them another week before I removed them from the cage. After that long, they are not going to sit on the eggs and they will rot soon.
