Whoa, now mom's finches are starting in!!!

My mother's finches are now building a nest. Does this necessarily mean they are going to breed, or does it just mean they are busy bodies? Her birds are extremely active as they have a nice cage with plenty of room and toys, and the birds are as healthy as can be. She got them almost a year ago from her cousin and at that point they were just over a year old, so they are now around 2 years old, old enough to breed. She's never had them build a nest until yesterday. A couple days ago she got them a new covered basket type nest to sleep in, but the birds then decided to pick through the grate and get at the paper to put in their new nest. She's not sure they are going to lay eggs since it's November and the days are very short, and she says the male is the one that is mostly in the nest and taking the paper to the nest, and doesn't see the female do as much work as the male. Does this sound like they are nesting? Thanks in advance for any responses!

 

When finch's are going to breed the male makes the nest and once it is to his liking then they will mate and usually within 48hours you have the first egg.

They lay 1 egg everyday average clutch size 4-6 some have more incubation period is 14days starting from when the 3rd egg has been laid as the female does not sit tightly on the eggs until the third day.

If any eggs have not hatch 20days after it was laid then they are not going to and can be removed.
There is no need to remove the male as he helps raise the chicks and carries on caring for them when they leave the nest.
If they are going to be allowed to raise a family then you can provide them with some shredded tissue as they will use this to put in the nest to make it warm and snug otherwise they usually pull there own feathers out to line the nest.

My finch's have laid there 3rd egg today.

Mike

 

Same

Hey Mike, congrats on the eggs! My mom gave them some clean squares of burlap and another sort of material to line their nest with. When she put it in their cage they immidiately went down and tore it apart piece by piece, now most of the burlap is inside their nest. The other stuff is the same as she gives her canaries for their nests, and they seem to like that just as well. Should she give the finch "egg food" as she would the canaries? They have cuttlebone and mineral blocks in their cage and they get fresh fruit and millet as treats. Do you have any suggestions to add? Thanks again mike!

 

HI yes she can give egg food everything she would give to her canaries the finch's will love and she is doing everything else right so alsong as the finch's are happy you should get eggs within 48hours.

Once the first egg is in the nest remove anything they can use as nesting material as they are known to make sandwich nest where they build nests on top of eggs.

Incubation is 14days from the third egg good luck and hope all goes well....

Mike

 

birds

Hi everyone. My mom's finches are going bonkers with their nest building...when do they stop building? This has been going on for about 4 days or so. It's a lovely nest. She's been checking everyday to be sure her hen hasn't laid any eggs then continued to build on top of that, so she's sure there have been no eggs laid. Isn't it an odd time of year for birds to be nesting? Also...her birds are in the living room, where they've always been, and the family is always in there, it's not the quietest room in the house, yet they don't seem to be bothered a bit, they continue to play and build their nest. I'll check back later with more updates on these lil guys. Thanks!

 

If they are building on top of the other nest remove any nesting material from the cage and leave them with whats in the nest otherwise they will continue to build..

Once they have nothing to use for bedding they will settle down to lay there eggs.

Finches prefer a nest to sleep in so will build there nests anytime of the year and in anything they can fit there bodies into.
You will know if they are breeding as the male will make a funny 3-4tone whistle yet still keeps his quiet tone.

If the finches are indeed going to lay then the room must be quiet and calm enough for them as they will not lay if they are not calm and since they are readily building a nest then i would say they are more than happy..

Good luck and hope to hear some good news soon..

Mike

P.S My finch's have laid 3eggs so hopefully they will hatch within the next week or so will keep you posted...

 

Well, she took out the nesting material, and for awhile she said they were looking all over for more materials. But, a funny thing....When I told my mother to go ahead and put a nest in her aviary, she'd already done so! Also, she was wondering something about her new canary. It's a female red factor, but we've noticed she's got red eyes. Her body is mostly yellow it has a few dark lines on the back and her tail and most of her wings are the orange color, and if you get her out you can see she's got red eyes....she wants to know of that will be passed on to her offspring? She's never had a canary with red eyes before. Thanks in advance for any response.

 

Hi sorry about the other night on msn messenger i have been having computer problems all sorted now i hope....

The finch's will look for more material but once they realise that there is none left they should settle down to start laying eggs.

The chances of your mums red factor passing on the red eyes is high.
When breeding the male will pass his genes on to the females and the female will pass her genes to the males...

So say you bred 2 different colour canaries the females would take on dads colours and the males would take on mums colours..

Somewhere in the red factors bloodline there may have been an albino canary i have never seen one but they have been recorded to have been bred.

So you never know she could produce them if she is bred from...

Mike