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BittyBirds

Hi from MS

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Just joined and am co-owner with my husband to 2 pairs of zebra finch. We had our first hatch of 3 chicks now 4 weeks old. One is a light dove grey more on the white side. The other two are one normal grey and one with white wings feathers.  The father is a normal grey and the mother is a pied but with just white wing feathers. My first question is how long do I feed the chicks on their egg food mix? Thanks.

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On 3/31/2017 at 03:12, Zebraman said:

Welcome to the forum BittyBirds.

I have placed a link to our other website that contains lots of useful information.

Breeding Zebra Finches

I hope this helps.

Gary

Thanks that was a nice read but it didn't tell me when to stop putting in the egg mixture food. When do you stop feeding the baby egg food?

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First I'd like to say 'Welcome the forum'

Are your young chicks still being fed by the parent birds? Do you put the egg food down to make it available to them all?

What I normally do is when the adult birds are feeding the young in the nest I give them a little egg food along with their normal seed every day  and oyster grit is always available  to them as well as cuttlefish. 

When the chicks fledge I continue with the above and also give millet spray to encourage the chicks to peck on their own.

Once the chicks are separated from the parents For the first week I still give the egg food every day then gradually decrease the amount daily and then only give a little twice a week in  finger feeder or a small container.

Hope this helps. from the description of the chicks they seem all to be pied - I love chicks like that. I have a variety of colours of finches and have some crested ones too.  Any chance of you posting a photograph of the chicks ?

Emmy

 

 

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Hi Bitty Birds and a welcome from me too.

I think everyone has their own way of doing things so I carry on feeding egg food all year round about twice a week. But! mine absolutely love plain Cuscus and can't get enough of it. So if you are of a mind, you could try that yourself. In fact I kind of alternate with those two and a finger draw of Budgie Tonic seed. With 'Just Thrive And Gloss' supplement all the time.  

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23 hours ago, Emmy said:

First I'd like to say 'Welcome the forum'

Are your young chicks still being fed by the parent birds? Do you put the egg food down to make it available to them all?

What I normally do is when the adult birds are feeding the young in the nest I give them a little egg food along with their normal seed every day  and oyster grit is always available  to them as well as cuttlefish. 

When the chicks fledge I continue with the above and also give millet spray to encourage the chicks to peck on their own.

Once the chicks are separated from the parents For the first week I still give the egg food every day then gradually decrease the amount daily and then only give a little twice a week in  finger feeder or a small container.

Hope this helps. from the description of the chicks they seem all to be pied - I love chicks like that. I have a variety of colours of finches and have some crested ones too.  Any chance of you posting a photograph of the chicks ?

Emmy

 

 

I will try and get good pictures of the birds and put them on.

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12 hours ago, Andyn said:

Hi Bitty Birds and a welcome from me too.

I think everyone has their own way of doing things so I carry on feeding egg food all year round about twice a week. But! mine absolutely love plain Cuscus and can't get enough of it. So if you are of a mind, you could try that yourself. In fact I kind of alternate with those two and a finger draw of Budgie Tonic seed. With 'Just Thrive And Gloss' supplement all the time.  

Thank you. Do you cook the cuscus or serve it dry? I also read where meals worms are good for the finches but do they have be alive? I have seen dried ones.

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Thank you for posting the photographs I think they are so cute when they still  have their black beaks.

Emmy

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12 hours ago, BittyBirds said:

Thank you. Do you cook the cuscus or serve it dry? I also read where meals worms are good for the finches but do they have be alive? I have seen dried ones.

I use the instructions on packet, they call it cooking but it's just add boiling water really. For roughly 14 cages and 2 flights I use 54gms of Cuscus with 75ml of water. I don't stir it though but do cover the basin/container with clingfilm. When I do want to use it I fork it over and fluff it up. My lot accidentally get dry mealworms when they are given Canary No.2 as a treat which my other half mixes them in for her canaries. But I've never seen a Zebra Finch eat any. (that's not to say that some don't :lol:)

It seems that both of your parent birds are Pied or the non Pied one is split (carrying Pied gene) and if that is a CFW then the Cock is split for CFW and that chick will be a hen.

You wait till any baby cocks start to try and sing it's so funny.

Andyn

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On 4/1/2017 at 16:47, Emmy said:

First I'd like to say 'Welcome the forum'

Are your young chicks still being fed by the parent birds? Do you put the egg food down to make it available to them all?

What I normally do is when the adult birds are feeding the young in the nest I give them a little egg food along with their normal seed every day  and oyster grit is always available  to them as well as cuttlefish. 

When the chicks fledge I continue with the above and also give millet spray to encourage the chicks to peck on their own.

Once the chicks are separated from the parents For the first week I still give the egg food every day then gradually decrease the amount daily and then only give a little twice a week in  finger feeder or a small container.

Hope this helps. from the description of the chicks they seem all to be pied - I love chicks like that. I have a variety of colours of finches and have some crested ones too.  Any chance of you posting a photograph of the chicks ?

Emmy

 

Thank you.

 

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On 4/3/2017 at 05:21, Andyn said:

I use the instructions on packet, they call it cooking but it's just add boiling water really. For roughly 14 cages and 2 flights I use 54gms of Cuscus with 75ml of water. I don't stir it though but do cover the basin/container with clingfilm. When I do want to use it I fork it over and fluff it up. My lot accidentally get dry mealworms when they are given Canary No.2 as a treat which my other half mixes them in for her canaries. But I've never seen a Zebra Finch eat any. (that's not to say that some don't :lol:)

It seems that both of your parent birds are Pied or the non Pied one is split (carrying Pied gene) and if that is a CFW then the Cock is split for CFW and that chick will be a hen.

You wait till any baby cocks start to try and sing it's so funny.

Andyn

Thank you. I will get some CusCus.

 

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