Aussie Finch Forum

Reason i ask - i have only one cuban hen in my mixed aviary.

She has built her own nest.
I found a painted finches egg on the floor a week or so ago and put it in her nest.
Now it looks as though she is incubating it.
Will she be able to do it alone?

yes when a pair

Thanks finches247
Looks like it will not be a surrogate success then - i really thought she would push the egg out.
At least she is sleeping somewhere warm at night though

Even if you had a pair the hen would do all incubating. Cubans feed their young differently to estrildid finches though, so if she hatched the Painted egg I doubt she would rear it. Painted begging call is also very different from Cuban's.

That is interesting Tiaris - how do the 2 different species feed their young differently?

I don't believe that the actual feeding is any different its all to do with the call the young make when their hungry which is a call she won't be accustomed to. I'm not to sure but the mouth markings would be a bit different, correct me if I may be wrong. She may hatch it but don't know if she will continue to raise it but strange things happen in an aviery.

djb78 wrote:I don't believe that the actual feeding is any different its all to do with the call the young make when their hungry which is a call she won't be accustomed to. I'm not to sure but the mouth markings would be a bit different, correct me if I may be wrong. She may hatch it but don't know if she will continue to raise it but strange things happen in an aviery.

The actual feeding pattern is different to other finches for cubans,they stretch their necks out like canaries whereas regular young finches throw a wing up to block their siblings from getting a feed and that is the reason why cubans are not mass produced under bengos and zebs,So good luck mortisha i think you might need it Craig

Dang that is a pity - hope it doesn't hatch now.
It wasn't a deliberate try at fostering, just the fact that she started sitting surprised me and had me wondering.

Well there you go learnt something new, never seen my Cubans being feed before now I'm going to have to catch them feeding and see it being done, thanks crocnshas.

djb78 wrote:Well there you go learnt something new, never seen my Cubans being feed before now I'm going to have to catch them feeding and see it being done, thanks crocnshas.

I doubt if you will ever see them feeding young in the nest,due to the nest being so compact and the threat of deserting parents.Whilst cleaning out old brush in an aviary,i noticed some odd coloured eggs on the floor and placed them under a pr of bengo's in a cabinet.One by one they hatched and one by one they died.They reached about four days old and i was facsinated when i took the lid off the box and they had all their little heads stretched up wanting a feed.
Tiaris Canora is their latin name,Canora,sounds like canary to me so i am not sure whether they were leaning towards canary yellow or the way the chicks feed like a canary then again i could be totally up s..... c..... without a paddle.
G B might be able to tell us,with his avatar name being Tiaris Cheers Craig