baby Zebra Finches

[Kiwi]

Two of our finches have been sitting on a clutch of 5 eggs for a couple weeks, and today I came home from work to find a new pink little bundle.

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So far mommy and daddy bird are doing pretty good, it seems.
Say hi to mommy (grey) and daddy (white).

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Thankfully they seem to know what to do. We're first time finch grandparents
Does anyone have any experience with this? We appreciate any guidance or tips.

[WeepingPiano]

OuO

I can be of absolutly no assistance, but that has got to be the cutest thing I have seen all day.

Please keep us updated with pics?

[Katika]

My parents bred finches and small parrots when I was little. I grew up around baby birds, but was still too young to really know much about it.  Odds are incredibly good that the parents will be just fine doing this on their own.  What you need to be the most concerned about is that you keep the temperature warmish and avoid drafts, since the babies have NO insulation.  It's typically safe to expect the full clutch NOT to hatch and to possibly lose a baby or two every now and then.  Baby birds are very fragile and, from an evolutionary standpoint (because I can't think of a more appropriate term at the moment), that's the reason why they have relatively large clutches - nature doesn't expect all of the eggs to hatch or all of the babies to survive to adulthood, so birds lay several eggs to compensate for that fact.  That's not to say that there won't be times when the don't all hatch/survive, but just be prepared for the chance that they might not.

Also, as crazy as this may sound, if you haven't already heard of doing it, try offering mom and dad a little bit of hardboiled or scrambled (without butter/grease) egg in their diet.  Eggs provide the BEST protein that can naturally be offered, and the babies are already used to the nutritional balance in eggs

[Eviecorn]

Never raised a bird, so no clue.  But keep updating with pics of baby birdies!

[foalpatrol]

I used to have a pair of zebra finches.  Lovely little birds - your all-white male is gorgeous!

[Kiwi]

There will definitely be many pics

Thanks for the info and advice Katika. We do have egg treats for them (crumbly stuff we sprinkle on their food, and hard egg biscuits), but we've never tried an actual egg. I'll have to try that.

[Vintergatan]

Huge congrats!!! Awww, that is so adorable
I haven't raised baby birds personally so I don't know what to do, but a friend of mine recently had her Love Birds' eggs hatch. Unfortunately all 3 chicks died within 2 weeks I think the biggest problem was temperature (yay Iceland, even in the summer :S) so do keep those birdies warm!

and of course, keep us posted

[kaoskat]

That is so CUTE!!!! When our doves hatched an egg, they took care of him on their own. They fought over who got to take care of him even. It was rather funny to watch.

[Talismarr]

Cute!! I love the all white male as well! Can't wait to see future pics!

[Oneleo1]

OMG baby birdies! in a couple of weeks, the baby birdies will be too darn cute....fluffy and cute!

[Yurusumaji]

Congrats on your new addition! Can't wait to see the others hatch and watch them grow up!

[Rainsong]

When our Society Finches had eggs (and even when they don't, actually) we fed them "egg bread" - it's 12 dozen eggs added to a box of Jiffy Cornbread mix, and baked as per the mixes own instructions. Then we cut it up and freeze it, and when we go to feed it we run it through a blender till it's fine and crumbly then add the "fuzzy" bits from the top of broccoli.

This is served in small batches daily, and when it starts smelling sour it's tossed (we have 9 birds, it never gets that far).

You can supplement calcium (important in laying hens) by baking the eggshells and baking them in the oven, then crushing them and adding them into the egg bred mix.

Egg bread is high in protein, and you can add other veggies if your birds like them. Or you can add vitamins, special seeds, etc. I used to add bird pellets. Our birds won't eat carrot out of there, and we haven't experimented with many other veggies. They adore the stuff even w/o the greens, but they really REALLY love it with the broccoli. It's also a great (cheap) way to cut down on the cost of seed (which isn't the best food, anyways) and other feeds - stretches the dollar a lot.

[melodys_angel]

Why didnt you tell me??

Wow, big congrats!

[starrypawz]

Aww bless

[xeevee]

I haven't personally bred finches, but I looked after finches at a zoo and I've had extended family breed them.  You shouldn't have too much problem with them looking after their babies.  They don't tend to have the problems parrots get where they don't know what to do as parrots are more frequently hand raised than finches. 

You may have a problem getting them to stop breeding though.  Finches do have a very rodent like breeding rate.  So make sure you separate the genders when you want to stop having babies.

ETA - Congrats too.  Baby birds are precious little boogers.  I love your white finch too.  So pretty.