Why do finches eat their eggs?
They eat them for a couple of reasons 1. The eggs may have been infertile 2. The finches may be lacking in calcium that their body needs to have strong egg, and the egg shells are pure calcium, you may want to have you sister get a cuttlebone to put in their cage to give the added calcium they need. Sapphyre Certified Avian Specialist www.borrowed-rainbow.com Join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BorrowedRainbowAviary/
How do I stop my Zebra Finches to stop eating their eggs they lay?
When a bird lays an egg, it takes a lot of calcium and protein to create that egg. If the bird lacks those two factors, it is known that the bird will eat the egg to replenish itself. So, the reason why your bird is eating its own egg is because the diet that you are providing is not enough. Make sure that you are providing a cuttle bone/mineral block. This helps trim the beak while allowing the bird to naturally ingest the needed nutrients. Also, if you finches diet is only on seeds, it is very unhealthy. A proper diet consists of a little bit of seeds, pellets, fresh fruits nad vegetables, sprouts, avi-cakes, and nutriberries. Birds housed in cages simply need lots of variety. If the proper diet is not given, and your bird is being bred, you finch lacks the protein needed to support her clutch and her body. Egg-bound is one of the most severe cases of death in birds, it is important to prevent that. I see that you have updated your question. Do not remove the eggs she has laid. She will believe that a predator has eaten them a continue to hopefully establish a full clutch. Finches do not eat their own eggs because they like egg shells. As I have written above, she is lacking the nutrients she had before she had laid the egg. And the only way to get it back quickly, is to eat her own egg, which will resupply the nutrients that she has lost. You can give chicken eggshells to her, this will help support her body. I hope that helped, and good luck.
Zebra finch with broken toe, turning black?
Zebra finches are very resilient.....if in the wild no one would be taking it to the vet......most vets don't know the difference between a finch and a pigeon......the toe will more than likely fall off.....I have seen birds with only one leg that breed and do fine for themselves.....is there a piece of string wrapped around his toe? String is very dangerous for small birds......small fibers come unravel off of the string and wrap around their feet and legs.....when they pull at it, it only becomes tighter and tighter....it then cuts off the blood supply and they will lose the appendage.......I have seen some pet shops sell little boxes of string for birds to make their nest out of.....the best thing is burlap cut into 1inch pieces then unravel this for your birds to nest with......I feel like your bird will be just fine.....
Why would a Plumb-Headed Finch make a good pet?
Yes, they do make good pets. They are very compatible with other finches (especially the small seed eaters). They aren't fussy eaters and will eat much of the food they are given. They aren't picky about where they nest and are fairly easy to breed. They can be bred year-round. They are very hardy birds. Their life span is 7-8 years, longer than some other finches. They are sexed very easily, as the male has a red spot on his forehead and a black spot on his chin. Females lack the purple throat patch and white eyebrow.
Question on wild baby finches on front door?
Well, we have this Christmas wreath we left on our front door because we wanted to see how long it would last until it started to turn brown (which turned out to be about 3 months!!!). Anyway, when it finally get a tiny bit of brown, I went to take it down and discovered some resourceful birds had built a nest behind it up against the door and there were already 4-5 eggs in it! I'm pretty sure they are finches, as we see the mom all the time hanging out in the nest. The babies hatched about 3 weeks ago. 2 questions: 1. When they start fledgling, don't they sometimes take a few falls? I'm worried one will fall and hit the concrete front porch rather than a nice, soft, grassy spot. I've noticed the mama bird has been working hard to build up the sides of the nest about 2 inches higher than when they were born, so now it is visible even from the front of the wreath, so I'm assuming they are getting close to wanting to learn to fly. So, my stupid question is, do they fall a little initially? Should I put some blankets on the porch in front of the door in case they fall? NOT interested in finding little dead baby birds on the front porch. 2. When they all start flying, will they abandon the nest completely? Or, at what point, does the nest get abandoned completely? Am I stuck with the wreath, say, until fall? Or maybe just another 6 weeks? :) Thanks!
Baby Finch Can't Walk or Fly ?
You must get to a pet store and buy Kaytee Exact Baby Bird food. Then go to McWalMart and buy an insulin syringe - several as they are cheap. Then mix the powder formula with very warm water and begin to feed the baby. This is IF the mother is not feeding him. Give the mother half a hard boiled egg every day, in the shell. If she does not have enough nutrition (seeds are not enough) she cannot feed the baby.
How do I know if I have tetrachromatic vision?
Here's how Concetta Antico, an artist with tetrachromatic vision describes her experience of looking at a leaf - “Around the edge I’ll see orange or red or purple in the shadow; you might see dark green but I’ll see violet, turquoise, blue,...It’s like a mosaic of color.”Testing for tetrachromacy could be quite tricky, as majority of colour based tests are based on trichromatic vision. Genetic analysis is a far more reliable method to determine if you have the genetic variations that allow for a fourth type of cone cell in your eyes, which is responsible for tetrachromatic vision.The chances of you being a tetrachromat is higher if You are a female If there are males in your family with red/green colour blindness (a son or father in particular). Oddly enough, carrying the very same gene for mild colour vision deficiency would also make you a likely candidate for tetrachromacy.Tetrachromats are able to see 100 times more colour than people with regular vision. A rough approximation of their perception can be visualized using bird vision simulation, as some species of birds exhibit tetrachromatic visionIn each of the examples below, the image from the left represents what a regular human would perceive. The versions on the far right are simulations of tetrachromatic bird visionTo date only about 2 or 3 people have been identified as having tetrachromatic vision.So, if you find out you're able to perceive a spectrum of colours that's a 100 times wider than what most other people can, congrats! You could possess an ability that's truly superhuman ;) Images source: Invisible Colors Bio & History of Tetrachromat Artist Concetta Antico