Whose The Daddy?

[FrogsGoMoo]

Earlier this year, we got a female Canary (Brown Sugar) who was just determined to lay eggs. We placed her in the cage with our other Canary (Sherbet) who we got 2 weeks prior of unsure sex. Brown Sugar laid 4 eggs about 2 weeks after we bought her. Unfortunately, they were all infertile. We let her sit on them for about 23 days until she abandoned them and I verified they were empty. A few days later, she attempts again with another 4 eggs. Once again, infertile. Let her abandon them again after 22 days. Then we decided okay, we haven't heard Sherbet sing and she's desperately wanting to be a mother. So we decided to search around for a male Canary to pair her up with and eventually found one off of Craiglist and set up to buy him on Friday. Unfortunately, the Thursday night before we were buying the new Canary, we found Sherbet sitting at the bottom of the cage heavily breathing. Took him to the vet and they said he was about to pass away from some unknown infection. We occasionally let them fly around out of their cage so I'm thinking he may have eaten something or got dust in his lungs. I honestly have no idea. I have 7 finches who are just fine and neither Canaries have gotten sick since. So it's really a mystery what got to him. Anyway, we placed the new Canary (Paprika) in a cage next to Brown Sugar to get them accustomed to each other before placing them together. A few days go by and we decide to put them together after Brown Sugar kept chirping to Paprika. Then 4 days later, Brown Sugar lays an egg. We expected the 3rd clutch of infertile eggs so expected nothing of it. 18 days go by and lo and behold, as I was putting in treats in their cage yesterday morning, I noticed an egg was missing and instead noticed what I thought was a pile of feathers from them molting. Then it moved. And I went "Oh shizz." Baby Canary. Now, the question I've been trying to get to is, WHOSE THE DADDY?! Sherbet died about a week prior to the first egg being hatched, so it's possible he could be the father since I did notice him and Brown Sugar kissing and they acted as a pair to me. He'd sit over the nest when she was sitting it in and feed her as well. He was a bit aggressive at times though and pecked her here and there. So wasn't sure if he was being an aggressive mate, or a territorial hen over the nest. And Canaries can lay eggs a few weeks after mating. So he's not entirely out of the equation. But Paprika could be a female as well since I haven't heard him sing in the 4 weeks I've had him and he broods on the nest as well when Brown Sugar is eating or stretching her legs. We're really hoping it's Sherbets since it'll be a nice way to remember him by since he along with my Society Finch, Cookies and Cream, were our first 2 birds, and it was sad to see him go so soon.

tl;dr Have 2 potential male Canaries who could be the father of my female Canary's babies. Neither ever sung and one had 2 clutches of infertile eggs with the hen, and the other was only with her in the cage for 4 days before she laid an egg.

But what do you think? I'll post photos to keep up on their feathers coming in to see if he comes in yellow/orange, or red/brown.

Sherbet:



Paprika:



Brown Sugar:

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Here's a photo I took right when I discovered the baby:



And I also have a webcam on top of their cage to monitor them while I work, and here's what I'm talking about when I say that Paprika broods on the eggs as well. Just took this photo about 30 minutes ago:

 

[keirieski17]

@finchly might be able to help

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

@finchly might be able to help

I don't need help with anything, it's just a fun little observation game.

 

[keirieski17]

I don't need help with anything, it's just a fun little observation game.

I understand haha they’re just the only person I could think of who knows finches lol

 

[Kassiani]

It is an interesting question, but I guess if it were me...I'd be concerned about the remaining flock since you have one who died of an unidentified infection. How is Brown Sugar doing? She was in the cage with the infected bird, and now she's feeding babies. What did your vet say about treating the rest of the flock?

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

It is an interesting question, but I guess if it were me...I'd be concerned about the remaining flock since you have one who died of an unidentified infection. How is Brown Sugar doing? She was in the cage with the infected bird, and now she's feeding babies. What did your vet say about treating the rest of the flock?

They stated to just deep clean everything which we did. The cages, perches, room, everything. It's been 4 weeks as of tomorrow and all other 9 birds are within a few feet of each other and not a single symptom of anything. All happy hopping around and peeping as per usual. So I don't think it was merely a disease that killed him, but something that he must of consumed. I honestly have no idea it's a mystery to me. He was relatively young, so maybe some kind of genetic disease?

 

[finchly]

Who knows. It could have been anything.

Are you aware that Paprika is a really special kind of canary? He is a red mosaic. I have some myself. I’ve been looking for a female for almost a year.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Are you aware that Paprika is a really special kind of canary? He is a red mosaic. I have some myself. I’ve been looking for a female for almost a year.

We were thinking Paprika was something like a Red Cobalt with more brown than Red. I wish I could get better photos since he's still very finicky with us and when I get too close to the cage to take a photo he jumps around and I don't want to take him out of the cage just to take a photo. But we certainly were excited to find him since he's beautiful. But glad to know we did in fact strike a deal!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

End of day 2. Still only the one egg hatched, and the baby is anywhere from 32 hours to 48 hours old. No idea if the other eggs are even fertile or not since I didn't want to disturb Paprika. But they're getting fuzzy! Brown Sugar is an amazing mother and is constantly feeding it. She's a really sweet Canary so not too surprising to me! I caught Paprika a few times jumping over to the nest when Brown Sugar is eating and he seems to peer into it, see the baby crying for food, and goes "frick that" and leaves to enjoy a child-free life. He has brooded on it a few times as well. So he's certainly an interesting but confusing character.



Also, my finches laid their first egg the exact same day Brown Sugar did and I had an egg hatch this morning and another early afternoon.



Only have the photo of the one since I have 2 males and the one female in the cage, and Cookies and Cream is extremely protectant of them even though I'm pretty sure Oreo is the father. But I'm just happy I finally got baby finches since Peanut Butter's last clutch were all infertile despite being in a cage with 5 males. Started this clutch with 5, but they tossed one last Friday and another Monday. They were cracked so maybe they accidentally broke while sitting or turning them? But either way, I just hope I get at least one female since I have an excess of 5 males.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Still only one Canary egg hatched. If no more eggs hatch this weekend, I'm going to assume they're infertile. I tried setting up a new 4K webcam in hopes of being able to zoom in better, but it's still blurry so I'm pretty annoyed by that.. would really like to have some nice quality footage. But o well. Hopefully, I can figure something out.. But they're certainly turning into a little fuzzball!



On a side note my last Society Finch egg hatched!



I nearly had a heart attack though. During my lunch break, I looked over at my cage and saw the egg on the ground. I panicked, picked the egg up, and I could literally see the baby bird through the shell. So I was worried it was dead and they threw it out. I decided to put it back anyway just in case it was just fine. A few hours later I found Oreo feeding all 3. So thank God I have their cage on my desk otherwise the poor baby would have died. But they're the size of a q-tip head. They're so tiny I'm afraid of hurting them by just breathing in their general direction!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Sadly only one baby still, and I'm pretty sure it'll just be the one. I've very tempted to candle them, but I don't want to stress Brown Sugar out. But the baby is still doing great, noticed he's able to lift his head and keep it up without constantly flailing around. As I was running around doing errands today I kept remoting into my computer from my phone and a handful of times I noticed it flapping their wings a bit and it was adorable to say the least. So far this little fuzzball is being taken care of amazingly and seems to be very healthy! My only concern is the nest is getting really gross. Brown Suagr is doing a good job cleaning it, but the cotton she used to build the nest is getting stained with poop and it's all yellow and nasty looking.



And my baby Society Finches are doing great too. Very hard to catch the right moment with them since the 3 adult finches are on them constantly. The only way I can get them off is to throw a piece of spinach in their cage and they leave for 10 seconds to nip at it, see me looking at their babies, and immediately jump back on them. But they are taking great care of them (as expected for Societies), but I'm also a bit concerned they may be taking too good care of them. Their crops are huge! I feel they're about to explode! Here's a photo and you can clearly see the one on the right has their crop facing the camera, and that's how they all look.



Should this be of concern..? Not really sure what I can do anyway even if it was an issue.

Also, does anyone have any experience with using a camera of sorts to monitor them? I've tried using a webcam but honestly, the picture quality isn't that great. Here's what it looks like from about 2 feet up on top of their cage.



Also, as I was typing this up, Peanut Butter and Oreo just mated... Really guys... You have 3-day old babies to take care of!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Also, Brown Sugar seems to constantly chip. Is she chirping to call for Paprika to feed her? He/she never does, I'm just curious cause she never makes any noise, unless she's brooding on the nest, then she constantly chirps.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Day 5:

The Canary has gotten huge in size in the perspective of the eggs. It's practically the size of all 3 of them combined! Since the other eggs haven't hatched I'm assuming they're duds, which is unfortunate since I was looking forward to 4 babies. But o well, it's easier for Brown Sugar since Paprika doesn't help whatsoever with either feeding her or the baby....... and as I was typing that he/she fed her for a solid 1.5 seconds...

....haven't seen that yet before but, I'm not taking anything from it as concrete evidence he/she actively feeds her.

But anyways, baby update:



As for the concern with the finches' crop, it looks normal now. So I must of caught them right when they were finished being fed or something. But they too have gotten big. I guess day 5 is when they get some physical growth in size going?



A funny thing just happened as well. So on weekends, I like to let the birds free roam around my office since I'm hardly in there on the weekends, and I guess they heard the baby Canary chirping and decided they'd offer their assistance. Was pretty ammusing to walk in and find the finches just hanging out with the Canaries as they belong there. Brown Sugar didn't seem to mind, so not worried about her getting protective. She got food, a drink, fed the baby, and carried on as usual.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Day 6:

She's starting to get some color! Seems to be brown/dark red/black so maybe Paprika is indeed the daddy. A bit too early to call it though. Should potentially know by the end of the week!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Day 7:

She's starting to get very dark on her wings and neck. Brown Sugar is also starting to sit on her less. So either she's wanting to stretch her legs more often after spending the last 12 weeks sitting in a nest for 10 weeks total of it, or the baby is getting feathered enough to not need so much covering.

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Day 8:



She's getting a whole load of dark colors with no yellow or orange in sight. Her butt is still unfeathered, so who knows. Or maybe Brown Sugar has strong genes too. Would of been more evident if all 4 hatched to compare them all, but I feel unless she gets some nice red tones like Paprika does, I feel it could still be a toss up. But we'll see.

Her eyes are starting to open, I caught her opening her eyes a few times today, but she's still squinting most of the time. So hopefully tomorrow we get to see those beautiful eyes!

I also caught Brown Sugar taking a nap today on my surveillance cam. I guess being a mother is tiring her out.

 

[Pat H]

NEW LIFE... ALWAYS a miracle!

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

NEW LIFE... ALWAYS a miracle!

It really is amazing to watch this little thing appear from seemingly thin air, hatch from an egg, and turn into a fuzzy little angry old man bird in just a little over a week. Absolutely brightens my day to watch the babies be fed by their parents. There's just something about it that is fascinating..

 

[FrogsGoMoo]

Day 9:

Decided to finally take the eggs out of the nest since the baby's gotten so big it seems to inconvenience her. Candled the eggs and not surprisingly enough they were empty. Was worried how Brown Sugar would react when I put the nest back but she just immediately hopped back on and carried on as usual. She really is such a well-tempered bird and I love her.



The baby's eyes are starting to open up more. When I was taking the eggs out she looked at me as she struggled to keep her eyes open. It was adorable.

I also find it interesting how "underdeveloped" my finches are compared to the Canary. I expected them to fledge before the Canary, but despite only being 12-48 hours apart, the Canary will fledge about 5-7 days sooner.



They're barely getting their feathers while the Canary is almost completely covered at this point.