Confused Painteds

10 Mar 2009, 17:51

Hi every1 only new to the site and pretty new 2 the world of finches. I have a question my pair of painteds havent left each other alone since a purchased them a couple months ago. Well they started making a nest lined it with feathers and nothing else really happend. I inspected the site last week and noticed a couple eggs in the but the pair of birds really werent hanging around. 2day i notice the hen is missing in action and the cock bird is still flying round collecting nesting material. When i had a closer look the enterance to the sit is almost covered up and the hen is inside i can just see her. What i am wondering is the would the hen b sitting on the eggs from a week ago or would she have layed more eggs??? Do they normally lay there eggs over a period of time then sit on the lot or would she b sitting on dead eggs??? Pretty excited about the whole thing but dont want 2 bug the birds either.

cheers

10 Mar 2009, 18:00

Eggs can be good for about 10 days to 2 weeks if there fertile, She may have laid more eggs, i would stay away and don't disturb them and see what happens, good luck.
PS if you check the nest they might abandon the nest

10 Mar 2009, 18:03

good thing about it i cant really check it i made up these columns filled with grass so i cant really get in it 2 c thanks again.

10 Mar 2009, 18:10

one thing to remember with painted finches is that when they are breeding they require a lot of livefood, termites are best but mealworms are the most readily available.

10 Mar 2009, 18:33

I have heard of babies being kicked out of the nest within the first week as they were not feed live food. On the other hand i know a person the breeds them with no live food and every morning he feeds them whole meal breed soaked in lorrie formula.

10 Mar 2009, 18:41

Thanks 4 that will go out in the mornin and grab some mealies. Might go 4 a drive up the bush on the weekend have a look around

10 Mar 2009, 18:57

I get white ant mounds from the bush and put them on a steel pole in the back yard, about 30cm from the bottom i put grease around the pole to keep black ants out and termites in, the termites will track down the rest of the pole to the greese and you scrape these tracks off to get your termites.

10 Mar 2009, 20:39

i Breed painteds for years on no live food.i think the main thing is if the parents were breed on live food you will need it for the young.
But having said that live food is best for all finches if they will eat it.if they dont dont worry to much.
All my bird now get meal worms.

11 Mar 2009, 19:49

I am new to keeping painteds too but have recently had three babies pop out of a well hidden nest ( I purposefully avoid nest inspections with them, my stars and my parrot finches - although I have aways regularly checked my gouldians nests! ) I hadnt fed any livefood at all but have now slowly introduced some mealworms. They are not as quick down to the worms as the stars and parrot finch and seem to have done well without them! Good luck with yours

11 Mar 2009, 19:53

Congrats on the painteds Suerus, well done