The Eggs Don't Stop Coming!

Today we had to remove yet another egg from Joey and Phoebe's nest, because they were again focussing more on sitting on the egg, rather than feeding the poor baby.

Our baby is now all of eleven days old, and touchwood seems to be thriving!

Here are a couple of pics of him / her fluttering about.




And I also got a photograph of Rachel sitting patiently on her three eggs. Two of them are visible in this photograph.

Our Baby Finch in Trouble

We woke up this morning, and found our baby finch was in trouble. The parents had laid another egg in the same nest, and while engrossed in looking after the new egg, they were ignoring the needs of the poor baby.

We removed the egg so that the baby did not die due to not getting fed by the parents.

Here are a couple of photographs of the baby and the new egg.

Day 9 - Our Last Remaining Baby

Here are some photographs of the baby on Day 9.

You can see the wings and the face a little more clearly in this one.




Also, I managed to get a photograph while it was calling for food! You can see that it's eyes are just about beginning to open now.

Our Second Set of Finchy Babies - Day 8

Here's the next installment on our finchy family drama!

Joey and Phoebe's lil baby is still surviving and growing daily. Today is Day 8, and you can see the wings starting to form!



Ross and Monica finally seem to have a laid an egg in their new nest :



Rachel and Ricky have three eggs of their own, and in this photograph you can see Rachel sitting on her eggs :



And last but not the least, Chandler and Becks now have 5 eggs - which is the most any of our babies have laid till date!

Our Finches Enjoying Their Weekend!

Here's a video of our finchies making the most of a Sunday afternoon!

The first nest has Chandler and Becks's three eggs, and the second nest has Joey and Phoebe's lil finchy baby!

In the third nest you can see Rachel patiently sitting on her eggs!

Ross is the white one, and the one he's trying to help groom to his left is Monica, and the cutie right at the end busy chirping away is Joey - who's by far the most handsome of the lot! He's joined by his partner Phoebe ( the brown one ) who's probably wondering what on earth I'm doing with the camera peering into their nest!

And The Competition Continues!

It's almost become like a competition now - who can lay the most eggs!

Chandler - Becks and Ricky - Rachel now have three eggs each, and yes, Joey and Phoebe's baby is still surviving.

Two Eggs Each!

The latest update is that Ross and Monica are still nestless because they don't seem to want to use the last remaining nest.

Chandler - Becks and Ricky - Rachel now have two eggs each, and Joey - Phoebe are kept occupied looking after their last remaining baby finchy.

Mayhem and Madness

This morning we woke up to absolute mayhem and a scene of sadness and destruction today. Our birdies seem to have gone mad. Ross and Monica's remaining baby was thrown out of the nest and was lying dead, and the pair was thrown out of their nest by Chandler and Becks, who'd already laid an egg there.

One of Joey and Phoebe's babies seem to have dissapeared and we couldn't find it. The other baby was still alive and kicking.

The third nest ( Ricky and Rachel's ) now had only one egg. There were two, but they threw one of them out, and it lay smashed on the floor.

Ricky was the only consolation in all of this. When we came home in the evening we saw that he'd finally found his mate in Rachel, and was sleeping in the nest with her. Among all the sadness, there was this one bright ray as we'd been trying to get him paired up with a female finch for weeks now!

In Remembrance

In one of the nests ( Joey and Phoebe ) two new babies were born today, and from the first nest ( Ross and Monica ) one baby died today :(

We don't know why or how, but are hoping the other babies now survive.

Our Second Set of Finchy Babies!

One of the eggs from the second nest hatched this morning, and we had another squirming tiny one inch long finch baby! There was another egg yet to hatch, but we were expecting it to be later today or tomorrow morning, as the eggs normally hatch in the order they are laid.

We gave the finches boiled carrots and beans, but they didn't seem too interested. Since the mothers need to feed their babies, and soft food is essential I decided to cook them some peas as they like it more than any other vegetable or fruit we've given them so far. While I was putting the peas inside their cage, I peeked into the second nest to see the new baby, and what do I see but the second egg about to hatch! The mother was helping the baby inside to come out so I ran inside and grabbed the camera as I didn't know when I would get shots like this again. Here are some of the photographs. What an amazing feeling it was to see that little baby emerge from the egg!

Ross and Monica's Babies - Day Four

Here are some pics of the babies on Day four, and also the rest eating their peas which they seem to love. As usual they make a mess while eating as is evident from the photographs!

The babies cuddling each other and sleeping



Monica getting ready to feed her babies



Give us some food NOW!




Ricky



Chandler

Ross and Monica's Babies - Day Three and Phoebe and Joey's Three Eggs!

Ross and Monica's Babies - Day Two

Our First Finchy Babies!

Ro woke up this morning, and as usual went to check on the birdies. He was peering through the cage to see the eggs ( by now one nest had 2 and the other had 3 ), but what a surprise he got when he saw two baby finches instead! He woke me up, and I don't think I've woken up that quick in a long long time! What an exciting start to the day it was! Tiny, frail, black beaked babies ... amazing to think it all happened in front of us and so soon!

Rachel and Chandler Are Happy Again!

We got our two new finches home in a small tiny cage, and before putting them in with the rest, decided to clean the larger cage first. While we were doing so, we placed the small cage next to the large one. It was such fun to see Rachel and Chandler go beserk - hopping around excitedly, mad with joy, and the two new finches no better! If there was a way for Rachel and Chandler to get out and into the small cage - they would have done so! It was so cute! We didn't keep them waiting long though; quickly cleaned the cage and then put the new finches inside and heaved a sigh of relief. Now they would all be paired up and could play at happy families!

Of course naming the two new arrivals was important. And poor Rachel could now have a guy name as befitted him! We decided to rename Rachel - Ricky ( after Richard Castle from one of our favourite TV show - "Castle"! ). One of the new females got named Becks ( after Kate Beckett in the same serial ) and the other was called Rachel!

Once it started getting dark, Chandler and Becks settled down in one of the nests together, and Rachel in the other, but alas! Ricky ( who was once Rachel ) was still by himself! There seems to be something seriously wrong with the guy!

Galiff Street and Our Two New Female Finches

After we found out that Galiff Street is the mecca for pets, we decided to go there to get our two female finches. It's a weekly market that is held every Sunday, and it starts as early at 4.30 am! We left home at around 5.00 am and set off - I for one couldn't contain my excitement at the thought of entering pet paradise and when we got there I wasn't dissapointed! Puppies, birds, guinea pigs, rabbits, fish, pigeons, ducklings, chicks, plants ... just amazing!

After spending a few hours there and going from stall to stall, we finally found our two female finches! We also bought another nest as now we'd have four couples, and we had only three nests.

I won't say more about the place - the photographs will speak for themselves.