I got a pair of Zebra finches about three months ago and it wasn't long before they started laying clutches. The first two weren't fertile so I took the eggs out when the female stopped sitting on them. But a couple days later she started laying a new clutch. These I decided I would candle to save her from spending weeks laying on infertile eggs. I found out that they were fertile and was excited!

But then just before they hatched or right after (I never saw exactly when) I started finding dead baby chicks on the bottom of the cage. The nest has a very high lip twice the height of a Zebra finch, so I can't see how the chicks could be accidentally falling out. When all the eggs were gone they laid another clutch and did the same thing.I then thought that I would take away the nest to stop this. But when I did so they started laying eggs in their food dish.

I thought that raising Zebra finches was supposed to be easy. Ideally I would like to find a way so that my finches will raise some chicks. However, I would be content to find I a way to make them stop. Please help!