How to Mate Zebra Finches

Select the two zebra finches that will make up your breeding pair. Your male finch will be much more brightly colored, with a red beak, orange cheek spots, a black strip over a solid white breast, and reddish brown speckles under the wings. Your female finch is a more uniform gray, striped color, with an duller orange beak. Both birds should be seen by your veterinarian to be sure they are in good health.

Feed your finches a variety of foods to maintain the health of your birds through proper nutrition. Your female in particular will need a variety of calcium and protein-rich foods to prevent her from becoming eggbound and to keep up with the demands of raising the chicks. Offer your birds finch seed mix, fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs, and vitamin supplements.

Provide the birds with a large, clean cage in a quiet area. Their cage should be at least 2 feet long, 1 foot wide and 8 inches high, but more space is better if possible. You will also need to give them a safe place to lay and incubate their eggs. Nests woven out of bamboo and wooden enclosed bird boxes are available at pet stores that sell bird supplies. You will also need to provide your finches with nesting material such as shredded tissue, burlap cloth or cotton balls.

Leave the birds alone as much as possible to give them the sense of privacy and security they will need to mate. Make sure the cage is in a quiet room and try not to disturb them when you clean the cage and change their food and water. Zebra finches will usually mate very easily if they feel secure and are well nourished.

Check the nest or nest box daily for eggs. Your female will usually lay about one egg a day. She may lay anywhere from one to eight eggs in total, although two to five is average. After all her eggs are laid, your female will begin to incubate them for about thirteen days.

Monitor your birds while they incubate their eggs. Your male will occasionally take over the incubation duties while the mother bird eats and drinks. Fertile eggs will darken in color after about one week. Your finches may accidentally cover up their eggs with too much nesting material. Gently remove the extra material so that they don't forget about their eggs and abandon them.

Make sure that you can be present when the eggs hatch so that you can make sure the hatchlings are not accidentally pushed out of the nest by their parents or the other hatchlings. The baby finches will be about one inch in length and will begin to make soft noises after four or five days. Finches that are first-time parents may not properly feed their chicks due to inexperience. If these chicks die, allow your finches to rest for a few weeks before you let them to try again.

Monitor the chicks' health as they grow. During the first few weeks, the chicks are known as nestlings, and your finch parents need to keep them warm and well-fed. Do not handle the chicks too much at this stage. Once they attempt to leave the nest, they are known as fledglings, and will begin to learn to eat on their own. They will need soft food and finch millet. This is the time to begin to stroke and gently handle them to help them adjust to people. A few weeks after they are weaned, the chicks will begin to molt and lose their baby feathers. They will begin to display their colorings and you will learn which ones are male and which ones are female.

Schedule a visit to your veterinarian to ensure that all the chicks are in good health. The doctor may also be able to recommend ways of finding homes for the chicks. Now that their chicks are grown up, your male and female finches may begin to breed again. Frequent breeding is stressful to your finches and can cause illness. Remove the nest and all nesting material from their cage to ensure that they have a few months to rest before you allow them to raise more chicks.