BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Single mom Finch

Hello, My son Curtis has two zebra finches, Lysander and Hermia. We were very excited 4 weeks ago when we noticed that Hermia laid 5 eggs. Lysander ended up kicking one of them out causing it to crack. So around two weeks later we had 4 hatchlings (one per day). Hermia was feeding them and keeping them warm without a hitch until a couple of days after the 4th hatched Lysander was tossing a hatchling out of the nest. We put it back, but he'd keep doing it. We finally separated Lysander into another cage in a different room and Hermia has been a wonderful mom since. I read that the dad is supposed to be the one that feeds the babies when they become nestlings. Will this be a problem? When should I join them again? I can't seem to find any info on our predicament. Thanks for any advice!

How exciting to get 4 babies from a first clutch!

It is not unusual for eggs and/or babies to find themselves out of the nest. Usually, it is by accident - if either parent is frightened out of the nest and the baby or the egg was under the parent's leg. I'm not sure if you actually observed the male throwing the baby or the egg out or not, but otherwise, I would be inclined to think it was an accident. Other times that a baby is thrown out, it is often (but not always) because there is something wrong with the baby and it may not survive anyway.

The female can raise the babies on her own, as long as you have an abundant supply of food and water available for her. Now that you have removed the male, I would probably leave him out until the babies leave the nest on their own. At that time, you could put them in with the male to look after and give the mom a break - or you could put him back with the family. Keep an eye on him though to make sure he doesn't hurt any of his babies. You could also leave him out and let mom raise them completely on her own.

Please let us know how things go with your little family.

Thank you! Actually the 4th (littlest) ended up on the floor of the cage two days ago and was found dead.I'm assuming it was an accident. We were gone all day and unable to save the little one. This has sure been an emotional experience. The three remaining are big fat and healthy, it seems, and Hermia is being a good mom. And, yes, Lysander,(when in the cage) was observed, by us, picking up the babies and trying to flick them out. I'm afraid he didn't know what to make of the new squirmy things invading the nest he worked so hard on. So the three are eating, chirping and moving around in the nest. Their eyes are not open yet. Thanks again for your advice. Curt and I will keep you updated, with more questions, I'm sure!

Curt and I have the latest news on his little finches!

We are happy to say that the three remaining hatchlings are now fledglings! They hop out of the nest and imitate Hermia (mom) all day long. They even took a bird bath! Curt wants me to post some questions that I can't find the answer to: One of the babies will not go back in the nest unless mom is. The other two, however, go when directed to by mom. Is this normal behavior? Also, one of the babies does not have a black beak like the others....it's a pale peach color. This is not a sign of gender, so early is it? Is it a sign of anything significant?

Hermia is still a single mom. We found that even when she could hear Lysander (dad) in the other room she wouldn't care for her young.So we'll wait till they can feed themselves, remove the nest, and try to join them.

Any voice of experience is welcome! Thank you!

Congratulations on your babies!
How old are they now?

Sometimes we over analyze what the birds are doing and we don't really have answers. The one not going into the nest could be the oldest one and want more independance - or he could be the youngest one and need the mom's reassurance to go back. He almost might be the middle one and he or she is just a rebel - LOL. With people/dogs/cats/birds, etc, you are always going to find differences in personalities.

I'm not sure on the beak colour though. Is this one looking like he or she will be a different colour bird? Are the parents both normal in appearance? Even if they are both normal in appearance, one of them might be split to another colour like fawn. I may not be right on this, but I think the fawn coloured babies do not have the black beak as babies.

Hmmm...let's see:

~The first egg hatched March 27th, #2 and #3 on March 28th (that was when Lysander started flicking #3 out of the nest.... removed Lysander) then finally #4 hatched on the 29th.

~We found #4 (three days old) on the bottom of the cage on the evening of April 1 (We were at Disneyland all day).

~So #1 was two weeks old on April 10th, #2&3 on April 11th. So they will be three weeks old this Thursday and Friday!

Now that they were able to move around we tried putting Lysander back in with the family. He proceeded to try and pluck the eye out of one of the fledglings! He was removed promptly. We won't do that again!

As far as I know Hermia and Lysander are Zebra finches.

Curt loves hearing your replies.....and so do I, Thank you!

Zebra finches can vary between being excellent parents and being horrible parents. Luckily, you have 1 good parent in the family, because dad is obviously in the horrible category. This doesn't mean that he will be the same for the next clutch, but it does mean you'll really have to keep an eye on him if they breed again.

If you can get pictures of the birds (both the parents & the chicks), we would all love to see them. To post them here, you would have to upload them to a site on the internet and then insert them into a post here.

Thanks again for your reply! It started me thinking about why one of the fledglings have a pink and black beak. Then I searched online and found a blog where someone took a picture of her "zebra finch fledgling" with a pink and black beak and asked why? Someone replied saying it may be part pied or society finch.
It started me thinking about Hermia: She has a white stripe along the bottom edge of her wings. Could this make her a pied? Can pieds be gray like a zebra with a bit of white? How fun this is!

I will try to get their pictures to you soon.

The babies are growing and doing so well! Hermia is still feeding them. When she stops we will introduce Lysander?

FYI ... I changed my post name. Being that my son's name was not relevant in any other forums....

I haven't gotten those pictures yet...but I will!

i am having the same problem as plumette help me please!!!!!!!11
the first batch only 1 out of 3 survived and now they just kicked 2 out killing them