Another Switcheroo

Sigh! The M/M society foster pair's (on the right-hand side of the cage) eggs AGAIN appear to be DIS (3) and infertile (1).  They're now fostering two newly-hatched chicks belonging to Sandy and Patches (zebra finches).

Sandy's been having trouble with egg-binding (another of the females we got at the bird fair from that same seller, interestingly enough), and at the same time, Patches started plucking her, probably trying to mate when she most likely wasn't "in the mood".  I re-paired Patches with another hen about 3-4 weeks ago.  Sandy's eggs candled as being infertile, but I left them in her nest to help get her out of egg-laying mode.  Little did I know that she replaced (probably ate) two of the eggs with two fertile eggs!  They hatched within the last 24 hours.  Since her nest was still lined with the dangerous-to-chicks nesting materials (wasn't expecting youngsters so I hadn't gotten around to changing it), totally re-doing her nest would mean taking a huge risk of her abandoning the two chicks.

So I moved the two chicks to the M/M society's nest, and removed two of their DIS eggs to make it appear that the eggs had hatched.

Between removing Sandy's nest and her mate being re-paired some time ago, she should be out of breeding mode for awhile.  That'll give her time to rest up and re-build her calcium reserves, and the chicks will be taken care of by the fosters.  Problem solved!  :-)  (I felt bad about taking her chicks, but under the circumstances (her being exhausted and the unsafe nesting materials that there's no way to feasibly change out), it's for the best.)

I'm keeping an eye on them (they're here in my office).  One of the societies hopped right into the nest immediately and started feeding them.  The other is studying the new arrivals in between loading up on food, so I'm sure he'll be in the nest as soon as his turn to sit comes up.  :-)

I don't think I'll be buying any more zebra finches from that particular seller, given the problems with egg-binding.  It could be just a coincidence, but it sure is odd.  A genetic defect with his zebra finches, maybe?, considering that I haven't had any problems with his society finches.

Sometimes I wish society finches had all the gorgeous mutations that zebra finches have.  They're much easier to care for, far less problematic when breeding, and they all get along with each other without squabbling.  It's crossed my mind to change over to societies only, but I don't know that I'd ever be able to part with my zebra babies!  :-/

Oh!  I can't remember if I posted about it or not, but Stormy (cockatiel) is living at my sister's house for the time being.  The allergy problem was getting worse.  :-(  My sister just lives about 3 miles away, so we can still go see Stormy whenever we like.

A few of the lovely itchy red blotches: