dead baby finch

Question
QUESTION: My society finches hatched 3 babies. Seemed to be doing well. Youngest was fine yesterday, but today dead in nest, crop all whitish, bottom end all black. Normally their crops have looked fine- noticeable seeds inside them. The remaining 2 seem well taken care of. Any comments? The food I put out for them  - boiled egg, chopped romaine,ground pellets, finch & budgie seed & finch & budgie gravel.They are all eating and doing well. They are housed with diamond doves and no problems thus far. thank you

ANSWER: It really depends on how old the babies are. If the babies are too young, the seed that they were fed will prove lethal. It isn't until the baby's eyes start opening that they can handle seed.
This almost sounds like a crop infection that went too long untreated. A crop infection can happen quite easier when there are babies. Nystain (not how you spell it) from a vet will fix this right up. The only catch, you need to bring a sick bird in and pester the vet enough to give you something to treat it. Once you have successfully gotten the medicine, open the mouth of the bird (a filed down toothpick works best) and make sure that the toothpick remains in it's mouth to keep it open. Give the infected a DROP (bigger finches can handle a slightly bigger drop and go down one number on the syringe) twice a day. You can do the babies too but I recommend only once a day and a VERY small drop. If you take out the babies too often, the parents will abandon the infant.

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QUESTION: That's just my point. The other babies are doing fine. This one was as well. They were all being fed the same thing - before their eyes were open. I put the food out, the parents regurgitated to their young. Seed, boiled egg, Romaine, finch seed, budgie seed,pellets..

The bird looked perfect the day before. Its eyes had just opened. It was only on the day of its death that I saw the whitish crop and blackened bottom end. do you have any other ideas? I'd like to prevent this from happening in future. The remaining 2 babies are fine still. The parents are feeding but the male does want to start a new nest. He's grabbing nest material. I hope they can wean these little ones first or I'll have to buy handfeeding formula and do it myself. Thanks

Answer
Alright, now I understand. It almost sounds like something got stuck in the baby and rotted. Check the ingredients of your finch food and look for "white millet". This is the largest seed and babies can NOT digest it, it will get stuck and rot inside the baby killing it. This could be the issue or it could be seed in general.
To be safe, I would remove all seed and replace it with some of the following:
Cede (difficult to find in stores but can be ordered online http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/12919/product.web)
Kaytee exact rainbow for canaries and finches (it is purchased at Petsmart here so odds are that's where you can find it)
Tropican Egg granules (also found at Petsmart)

Also http://www.ladygouldian.com/ offers a wide variety of finch food and the owner is knowledgeable about birds and her products. She'll be able to help you out should  you have trouble. My personal favorite product of hers to offer to parents is Miracle Meal (http://ladygouldian.com/node/51).

I would stop feeding the parents romaine lettuce while the babies are still being fed by them. Lettuce is hard to digest for babies and also may be the cause of the infant's death.

NOTE: You can NOT just suddenly change a bird's diet! This can cause stress to the parents and in some cases death. When introducing new food, it is best to mix it in with their own food and get them accustomed to it over time.