The First Egg!

Ross and Monica were the first to pair up, and as expected ( thought we didn't expect it so soon! ), they were the first to lay an egg as well! Considering the size of the birds themselves, the egg was rather large and one wonders how they manage it. Female Zebra Finches normally lay upto 6 eggs in one clutch and they lay one per day. The sight of that first egg was amazing!

A matter of concern however was poor little Rachel who was still partner-less. Chandler didn't seem to be interested in her, and the poor thing seemed to be moping. By this time I'd done a lot of research and reading up on finches, and after spending hours studying her and looking at her coloring and brown speckles, I realized that Rachel was not a female, but a male!! She did have a lot of the trademark male coloring ( brown speckles, orange cheeks and bright reddish beak ) but we'd just taken the pet shop's guy word for it that she was a female. No wonder Chandler wasn't interested!! For the time being though, we didn't change her name, and she/he remained Rachel!

We decided then that we'd go and get two more female finches for Rachel and Chandler and make them happy men as well! Come evening, and off we went to the pet shop. The guy probably knew he crooked us, so didn't look too happy to see us there. He did have a few finches left, but said that out of the lot there were only two females left and he wasn't willing to sell us both as the he'd be stuck with only males. So much for that ... Rachel and Chandler were going to have to remain single for a while longer.