strawberry finch laying 3 eggs every 13 days for the past one month...help!

hi,
i have one male and one female strawberry finches. they mated and started laying eggs.
first egg { 29th nov 2011}
second egg {30th nov 2011}
third egg { 1st december}

they have not hatched.

in the meanwhile they have again started laying eggs

first egg {14th december}
second egg{15th december}
third egg{16th december}


they too have not hatched

in the meanwhile they have again again started laying eggs.

first egg { 29th dec 2011}
second egg {30th dec 2011}
third egg {31st dec 2011}

so totally till now 9 eggs in the one month from 29th nov 2011 to 31st dec 2011.
none of the eggs have hatched till date.....today morning one egg fell down on the floor of the cage and cracked . so i threw it away. i think there are too many eggs in the nest and that is why they are rolling out.

what should i do.? why are they laying eggs every 13 days........please help me out. and the older eggs are not hatching. i cannot seperate the older eggs as i cannot differentiate them from the newer ones.

please help as soon as possible.

Hi Kokakola and Welcome. Sorry you are having problems with your Strawberries.

A normal clutch for them is 4-7 eggs and they should hatch after 14 days.

Do you see both of them sitting on the eggs?

Are you sure you have a male and female? Two females can lay infertile eggs.

Do you know how old they are? If they are older the male could be infertile.

Strawberries require a lot of privacy and don't like you checking their nest. What kind of nest are they in?

What are you feeding them? If they are eating egg food or live food and you let the dish get empty they will abandon the nest.

If you remove the eggs the hen will keep laying until she is done, so I would leave the eggs in the nest for now, if they are sitting/incubating on them.

If you candle them to see if they are fertile the strawberries will probably abandon the nest.

The last three eggs could have a chance if the parents are incubating.

Make sure you are giving them calcium like crushed egg shells, cuttlebone, or a liguid calcium supplement.

hi finch...

thank you for your reply.

i am sure that my strawberry finches are male and female.....the male is deep red or strawberry color and the female is green completely. they have laid 9 eggs till now in the past one month and some eggs have been falling out of the nest . so i wear new latex gloves and put the eggs back again. the male and female sit on the eggs regularly..........sometimes they went into other nests and i had to drive them out and into their own nest. i give them empty egg shells , cuttle bone, millet , corn , multi seed mixture.



since 3 days they have been sitting almost continuously in the nest and incubating.

day before yesterday one egg fell and broke on the cage floor..and yesterday one egg fell and broke.

twice eggs fell and did not break as they were caught in between the grill on the floor.....so i put them back carefully. why is the female laying 3 eggs every 13 days.........willl this continue or should i wait for 10 more days and throw all the eggs away and remove the nest.

i have zebra finches in the same cage. but all live freindly in the same cage..and strawberrys hve their own nest and the zebra finches have their own nest.

sometimes the strawberrys leave their nest and sit in the zebra finch nest and i then drive the strawberrys out and into their own nest.

kokakola, the hen is probably laying eggs every 13 days because that would be the normal incubation period and since her eggs are not hatching because they are not fertile or they died in the shell. The eggs may not be falling but are being tossed by the parents because they are not fertile.

If the last three do not hatch I would take out the nest and let the hen rest since this would be her third clutch.

Do you know how old the hen is? She may be too young:

As the hen enters breeding condition, her tail feathers may become more black and her chest may develop a tinge of yellow-orange. Juveniles are dull grey-brown above and buffish white below; they have two pale wing bars due to buff-colored feather tips on their median and greater wing coverts; the beak is at first black but turns pink as they age.

They will also need protein added to their food. You can boil an egg and chop it up along with the egg shell. A lot of breeders give live food for protein like meal worms but a lot of them are getting away from that and just giving boiled eggs instead. Or you can buy a dried egg food or freeze dried worms.

When you see an egg on the floor next time,can you candle it to see if it is fertile? Be sure and give them privacy and try not to "peek" in the nest because that can cause them to abandon their eggs.

Please let me know how they are doing, and if these eggs do not hatch you may need to put them in a cage by their selves and put in lots of fake plants for privacy, the zebras may be interfering with their nesting. How large is your cage/aviary?

kokakola, checking to see if there any updates on your Strawberries and their eggs.