| Somewhere between 8 and 10 days of age, you'll want to band your chicks. I say "somewhere between" because some chicks aren't large enough at 8 days and the bands merely fall off, or the parent birds pick them off. Most of my chicks are able to be banded at 8 days, though I've had them be 10 days. You want to be able to get the closed band over the chicks foot, and pull the hind toe through. If you wait too long, you won't be able to get the band on! If you are using open bands (those made of plastic or aluminum that have a slice in them to open the band), it won't matter when you band them. NOTE: I have had bird store owners tell me that they do not want banded birds. They claim the bands can be dangerous and cause injury to the bird's leg if they get caught on something. However, in all my years of breeding, I have always banded my chicks and have never had a problem with leg injuries caused by bands. Other stupid stuff I've done, sure, but never injuries related to bands! Reasons a good breeder will band their chicks:
and which are the chicks, all by the color or number on their band!
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Meadowlark Farms
Lady Gouldian Finches - When the Chicks Hatch
| This is the most exciting time! Your birds have successfully hatched their first clutch of eggs! Read more on how to handle potential problems, what to look for, and what NOT to do when the chicks hatch! |
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| THE LONG WAIT IS OVER - hatchlings |
| How exciting! You've just peeked in the nest because you knew the eggs should be hatching soon, and there in the nest, in place of the small white eggs, are your first chicks! They are pink, naked and blind and have huge glowing nodules on the sides of their beaks. You may notice that not all of the eggs have hatched yet. That is okay. They should all hatch within the next day - two days max. As much as you'd like to, you must not bother the parents too much. A quick check is good, but you should not interfere unless you think something is wrong. By the end of the day, you may hear tiny little peeps coming from the nest. This means the chicks are healthy and waiting to be fed. The parents will not feed the babies for the first or sometimes even the second day! The chicks will still be living off the yolk sac (you might be able to see it in their tiny bellies). Fear not, the parents know what they are doing! |
| DAY ONE & TWO |
| It's day 15-16 of brooding for your parent birds. This morning, while attending to your birds, you may have noticed them acting a bit strangely. They may be bopping in and out of the nest as if irritated by something. They may be standing in the nest looking down at their eggs, even occasionally pecking at them. Don't be alarmed! This is exactly how they should be acting! It means their eggs are about to hatch! The parents can hear those chicks peeping through the egg shells and are waiting for them to emerge. They know when to help the chicks, and will pick gently at the shell to help them out, if necessary. This is a very stressful time for both the chicks and parents. If a chick is having difficulty and the parents aren't helping, you may have to assist the chick out of the egg...but rest assured, most chicks emerge without any problems. Many parents will eat the discarded shells, though some will merely toss it out of the nest box. |
| DAY THREE |
| By now all the chicks should have hatched. If there are still unhatched eggs, you should not remove them...they will help support the newly hatched chicks for a few more days. The parents will have begun to feed the chicks and you will notice the crops of the young ones look like they are swollen and may look like they have "tumors". Don't be alarmed! When I first started raising birds, my Zebra finches were very successful! They were wonderful parents and fed their chicks diligently. I had heard that if you touch the chicks or eggs, or even the nest, that they would abandon their young, so I never even peeked into the nest! One day I decided I just had to look and was horrified to see that my chicks had some awful deformity! I was convinced they had some kind of funky disease! Their throats were swollen and full of what looked like tumors! In a panic, I ran to my local bird store and told the gal what I had seen. She chuckled and explained that what I was seeing was the bird's "crop" and it was full of seed the parents had fed it! Boy was I embarrassed! That was one of the first times I spent an entire day researching about my birds. I realized there was a lot I didn't know, and a lot I had to learn to care for my birds properly! I did NOT want to be embarrassed again! |
| DAY FOUR & BEYOND - nestlings |
| By now all of the chicks should have hatched. If there are still unhatched eggs in the nest, they probably won't be hatching - they may be infertile, or the chick may have died in the shell (both of these problems can be largely solved with proper nutrition). It is time to remove the unhatched eggs. You do not want the eggs to break and foul the nest! Broken eggs will leave a mess and can contaminate the nest box quickly. Your chicks and parent birds can become ill if bacteria spreads from those eggs. |
| TOSSED CHICKS |
| Occasionally, a parent bird will toss it's chicks. This might happen for a couple of reasons - Either the parents are too young and got "freaked out" by the new additions to their nest, there may actually be something wrong with the chicks, or the parents are overly eager to start a new clutch of eggs. These issues should be avoided if you've paired your birds well and have brought them into good breeding condition. However, should chicks be tossed... You have three options here:
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| FOSTERING |
| BANDING |
| Fostering is the easiest way to save abandoned eggs or chicks. No one wants to lose a chick, therefore most breeders will keep at least one pair of foster parents for just in case emergencies! Foster parents can be one of several types of small, gregarious finches such as Society or Zebra finches, or even a previously successful, brooding pair of Goulds. Hopefully you'll have set up a pair and fed them the same foods you have fed your Goulds, you've brought the foster pair into breeding condition, and have set them up to breed at the same time as the Goulds. They may be sitting on eggs, or even have chicks in the nest! I recommend foster pairs to novice breeders only because hand-feeding is time consuming and exhausting! For the new bird owner/breeder, a foster pair can save your chicks! If your Gould pair has abandoned the eggs or chicks, it is imperative you move the clutch to the foster parents immediately. If eggs are left too long, the embryos will not survive. If chicks are not fed and kept warm, they will not survive either! Keep in mind that Societies and Zebras fledge at an earlier rate than Goulds. If the foster pair stops feeding the chicks before they are ready, remove the foster hen and leave only the cock. He will then continue to feed the chicks as long as they need him to. See the You Have Eggs link for more information about fostering. |
| Three normal BH and one dilute BH chick. These chicks are 20 days old and nearly ready to fledge. |
| This BH YB chick has just fledged. She is 23 days old. |
| The same chicks as in the previous photo. They have just fledged at 22 days. |
| 16 day old chick with pin feathers. Notice how the cuticle is still coating the feathers. |
| OBTAINING BANDS |
| You can obtain bands from a number of locations. Many bird clubs offer bands through their association with a National bird club. If you do not want to join a bird club, you can order plain plastic bands through several Internet sites. Below is a list of Internet locations where bands may be purchased. When ordering, choose multiple colors if you have more than one pair so that you can identify siblings from each clutch and parent pair. Lady Gouldian Finch.com - scroll down a bit to see the "Leg Bands" link - http://ladygouldian.com/shopping_breed-supply.mgi National Finch & Softbill Society - http://www.nfss.org/Bands/NFSSbands.html For Gouldians, Societies & Zebras, click the "Order Online" link, order size XF for plastic bands, and size D for aluminum. If you have joined the NFSS, be sure to order bands for the correct year! You want your birds banded with the year they were born. Red Bird Products - http://www.redbirdproducts.com/legbands.htm You will have to print out an order form and either fax or mail it. You want to choose Finch Size, #35 |
| It's difficult to see in this picture, but in the picture on the left, the chick on the right will be yellow, and the chick on the left will be green. Yellow or light colored chicks will look like they have "red" eyes. The green or blue chicks will look like they have "dark" eyes. I could go into genetics here and explain how I know the yellow chick will be a "single factor", but I'll leave that explanation for the Genetics page! |
| REMOVING THE CHICKS FROM THEIR PARENTS - fledglings |
| Fledglings, or those chicks who've left the nest, will continue to beg for food from their parents until they are about 40 days old (from hatch date), sometimes a bit longer. Around the 45th to 50th day your fledglings should become independent of their parents. They should be feeding themselves, are drinking from the watering device, and flying around the cage. They should be no longer begging for food from their parents. The nodules on the sides of their beaks will have begun to diminish, and they will be sleek and fast. Whatever you do, do NOT remove chicks that are still being fed by their parents. You will begin to see the parent birds drive the chicks away when they are rest to start a new nest. If the chicks are independent, they may be safely moved to a large flight to build their muscles and learn to fly better. |
| Meadowlark Farms Lady Gouldian Finches 2009 © All rights Reserved. |
