Egg Food recipes are also recommend periodically as a calcium supplement. Additionally, during the egg laying process, many owners and breeders recommend that a baby bird hand-feeding formula be mixed with dampened seed and presented to the nesting pair. The benefit of the hand-feed powder formula is that it is easier for the parent when gagging up food to feed the fledglings and easier for the fledgling to digest. The reason for starting the hand-food formula before the birth of the offspring is to get the parents accustom to it prior to the time it is needed for feeding the young. Additionally, when my birds are going through stressful experiences, such as a change in housing, breeding, loss of a mate, I like to supplement their diet by putting a powdered vitamin in their water.
Wicker baskets work well as nesting sites.
When the nesting process begins, the male gathers material to carry back to start building the nest. Caged zebra finches will use commercially available artificial nesting material which is designed to approximate nesting materials found in nature. After nesting, a female zebra finch will lay between four and six eggs, laying one each day. After a couple of the eggs are laid, the pair will begin sitting on the eggs. The brooding and incubation process may take approximately 11 to 14 days or more.