Finches! Tell me everything!

[Rio Mom]

As I was leaving work tonight, a coworker asked if I wanted her finches, she's looking for a new home for them. I told her I would think about it, and let her know. I have a soft heart, so it would be hard to tell her no. Anybody have finches? Tell me everything about them! Thanks!

 

[MikeyTN]

What you want to know about them?

They can be commical, more then what some people would think. I've always enjoyed my finches. Some of them can sing so beautiful!!!! What type of finches are they?

 

[Rio Mom]

All I know so far is she said they are either spotted or leopard finches. What kind of cage would you recommend? What do they like to eat? Do they like toys?

 

[Rio Mom]

Anybody else have any finch experience?

 

[aliray]

many years ago I had two zebra finches that got fruitful and mutiplied. I also used to have a green singing finch male and now have a canary and they are also a finch. yes they do like toys ,small toys with stings that they can preen, and beads and strings and also many different size perches. Knowing what I do now I would get them a large flight cage, as they are active little birds. I love the noises they make the chatter and they are fun to watch and easy to care for.

 

[aliray]

Woops forgot I also at one time had a java rice temple bird another type of finch.

 

[aliray]

me again just to say they love dark leafy greens, arugala, watercress, kale collards,dandelions, corn, apple, carrots,etc whole grains everything I feed my parrots my canary also eats with the exception of hot peppers. never tried them on Lucas. Little bits of cooked egg cooked chicken, cooked beef, birdy bread fruits. He gets a dish everyday just chopped smaller. He also loves a daily bath in a little oval baking dish in his cage. Okay I think I am done now Maybe

 

[Rio Mom]

Thanks for the great advice!

 

[MikeyTN]

The food already been mentioned, its actually easier to get them to eat the greens and fruits then parrots....lol.....yes they love stringing toys....if you can, get them a flight cage would be nice as they love to fly around.

 

[MikeyTN]

Cage such as this one is great to keep multiple finches...

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002UTZ040/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?redirect=true&tag=discountparrot-20]HQ Flight Cage, Multi Purpose Aviary with Cart Stand, Black, 1 Per Box:Amazonet Supplies[/ame]

 

[aliray]

me again when they bite if you pick them up to clip claws they don.t draw blood or hurt. it is just a little pinch.

 

[aliray]

I just thought of one more good thing. If you need to pick one up to trim the nails or for whatever reason and they bite you, they don,t hurt or draw blood hehe

 

[Blue]

We started with 4 zebras... now there about 20 of them (they move to much to get a good count) they have a huge cage, its bigger than any of the parrot cages. They are cute and not noisy, well 20 of them doing their little beep beep can be a little bit but nothing like a bigger bird.

 

[Rio Mom]

Well, hubby agreed that we can take in the finches. I told him he can consider it one of my Christmas presents. I get them tomorrow night, there's two females, around 2 years old, not sure what type yet.

 

[aliray]

congrats pics please please please

 

[Finch_Breeder]

How are the finches going? Got any pics??? As you can see in my signature I keep finches, Ive been breeding them for 4 years now. I started off with 5 pairs of zebra finches... and ended up with the odd 80!!! (Not inbreeding, just the parents kept breeding). I sold the zebs, (way to many), then moved on to the more difficult finches like the Star finch and Gouldian finch.

 

[Rio Mom]

I will try to get some pictures of them tomorrow. They are doing great! We found an amazing deal on a huge flight cage for them yesterday (off pennswoods, similar to craiglist), I will get a picture of it posted too.

 

[MikeyTN]

My Zebra finches are naughty....They're not allowed to ever have babies!!! Their nest have been removed permanently, they came to me with nest and everything....They will kill their babies when they fledge, probably why they were given to me....I'm placing them into my aviary to see how they do together cause the male is plucking the female bald. IF they keep up, they will be separated permanently too...The pairs I had years ago NEVER do such a thing...I know it's the male that's doing the picking cause I saw him do it, I hope your finches are behaving....

 

[crimson]

I breed finches, and love the little ones I have gouldians,star,shaft tails,zebra, and society finches. 16 in total, plus babies.
I also have 8 canaries, among other birds. They are housed in large flight cages, with plenty of toys, swings, bead toys, wacky wood perches, etc...and all are totally spoiled!!, and very well cared for.
I clicked on your link but an error popped up, I'm pretty sure I know what cage you are thinking of getting, it's a very popular one, and perfect for finches.
finches also love egg food,oyster shell, fruits, veggies, leafy greens, and live food.
my gouldians are on eggs, same with my 2 pairs of star finches(yay!!), and my society pair have had babies....be careful though they breed like rats!...especially zebra finches.

Be careful not to put any fake plants in the cage for ornamental use. I had purchased, some very pretty tall flowered plants from Wal-Mart,(approx.12" in height) and have had them in my finch cages for quite some time. Tonight luckily I was in the bird room, and my female zebra finch(who is sitting on eggs) somehow got caught in this fake plant. I reached in the cage and gently freed her, but she was very stressed out. she was laying on her side, breathing very very hard, then tried to fly, but couldn't , and was spinning on her back in circles. I picked her up gently while her mate was getting upset, turned her up-right, and held her in my hand. then I decided to lay her on the bottom of the cage, as I thought she is not use to being in my hand and would stress her out more.

she collected her self for the next 5 minutes, kept shaking her tail, breathing hard(mouth open)
she flew to the lowest perch, and for the next 20 minutes pruned her self, and flew from perch to perch. She's a beautiful little pure white zebra finch with the cute tear drops. her mate is a pied white zebra finch, and they make beautiful babies, and are good parents.

If I was not in the bird room at that exact moment, she would have died. I have removed those plants from all the cages.
you should enjoy these little ones, they all have beautiful little songs! best of luck in your decision

 

[MikeyTN]

Crimson,

No kidding they breed like rats! The two pairs I had years ago populate so quick that I ended up with a flight cage full of babies so I ended up removing their nest permanently. The pairs were excellent parents but the pair I have now are NOT good parents, matter of fact the male will kill the babies, he pluck them bald and kill them before they were even weaned. I caught him killed one and that was enough for me to stop them permanently from ever having babies again. He then proceed to pluck the female bald. So now we're observing on how they do in the large aviary, IF he keeps up, he's gotta go. Unacceptable! They've given me just one baby that went to a friend of mine, he was weaned but learned the bad behavior from the father by plucking his sibling that was with him who was already mostly plucked from the dad and ended up killing him. So I told her to keep that baby solitary always as he's learned a bad behavior from his father.