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After 6 years of raising exotic finches this year is the first time I have deliberately made the choice of pulling babes and fostering then with Societies. I have fostered abandoned eggs and tossed chicks in the past but never considered stealing babes and adopting them out. Why did I do this cruel thing? Well, after two successful hatches by one of my younger Cordon Bleu pairs, and two times of tossed babes within a couple of days, I checked their cage closely on the third nesting attempt. Sure enough on my early morning round with the feed I found two dead chicks on the floor of the cage. I pulled the nest to check for remaining chicks, and four live babes were still inside. So after a short debate with my conscience I plopped then into a young Society pairs’ nest.
Within a few minutes the Societies checked out the nest and the hen immediately climbed inside and covered the babes from view. Meanwhile the male started searching for baby food. The Societies were delighted to discover these little stolen babes in their nest which eased my conscience some, but for the rest of the day the hen Cordon called softly for her kidnapped babes. I felt so sad for her and her mate I vowed never again to mess with mother nature again.
Fortunately the Cordons quickly reset up their nest and the hen started laying more eggs with in a week. As for the young Societies, they were busy feeding the orphans, but they insisted on feeding 90% seed. I tried all sorts of enticing eggfood mixes to know avail. They simply ignored it and continued with the seed. Within a few days one chick had died and the rest were weak. The next day another chick had died. In desperation I added Insecta-Pro and lots of seeds to the egg mix along with a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals. Finally this did the trick, they started feeding the eggfood and the babes started to grow. However their development was slow and they did not fledge until the 20th day from hatching. When they fledged it was obvious they were under nourished and lacking in protein. Other than the lack of good feather growth a a slightly smaller than average size they were healthy, alert, and active. And they quickly discovered the food dish and started pecking at the treats along with lots of begging to the Societies for feedings. They are now weaned and seem to be doing fine.
Would I do this again? Yes I think I would. Why? Because the young Cordon pair just tossed their fourth nest of babes out on the cage floor yesterday. This will be their last chance this year and hopefully by next spring they will have matured enough to raise their own chicks.
We have taken great pride in the fact that our Cordons are good parents and all our chicks are parent raised. That is all but these two kidnapped babes. So the whole experience has put a dent in my ego but the fact that the chicks survived has also opened my eyes to the simple truth that sometimes it is better to save the chicks than let nature take its course.
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