Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I picked up my largest egg eater which was a recent import and noticed she lost a ton of weight. I knew right away something was wrong but wrong in a good way. I quickly looked under the paper and saw she laid 5 eggs but they were somewhat caved a bit. I put them on moss and into the incubator (near the mamba eggs for those who might ask) and they are filling out and expanding which is a good sign. I will get a picture of momma soon and post it. As of today, the eggs look much better and are 90 percent filled out. That was a close one. When they hatch, I will use a metal tube and syringe to tube feed chicken egg to the babies until they start taking finch eggs on their own. I have done that with small imports and it works great.

Dan

Congratulations man. They are supposed to be able to take finch eggs at hatching, though, so you might not have to go to all the effort of force feeding.

Phillyherping

Yea, I understand babies can manage a finch egg, but you should have seen the look on the ladies face at the bird store and heard her comments when after she asked and told her what the eggs were going to used for.

Dan

Bravo and No comment.
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pinsnake

I have been so disappointed by bird people since I've been working with the egg eaters. You know a pet shop selling finches has to throw away dozens of finch eggs each month (few let them hatch out), and I found only two out of maybe 12 that I tried that would give them to me, and then they've charged me $1 per (for those with no experience with finch eggs, they're about the size of a pinto bean). Otherwise I've found a few dove breeders who will occasionally ship me eggs, but then with mixed results, and the dove eggs are too big for hatchlings.

Billy

Phillyherping

Check them out before and after.

They are plump and almost too plump and one is even bending at the end it started to plump so much. lol

All they needed was a bit of moisture, heat, and time.

Now I gotta go and buy a crap load of finches to start collecting eggs. I like birds anyways and already have a cage, so what the heck.

Dan