New Finches

smiklich · Post by **smiklich** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:53 pm

We found out that my son bought a finch...so we went out and got the cage, food, etc etc. We ended up buying two more finches. We now have 2 females and one male. I read somewhere they should be in pairs so we went back to the store to buy another male. The woman there said 2 females and one male are ok to have. I was wondering if the two that mate will ignore and possibly harm the other female.

Can anyone help??

lia-w · Post by **lia-w** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:03 pm

It is best to have them in male/female pairs. They will be aggressive to the left out female if they end up mated. Depending on how big your cage is, 1 pair is the way to go. 2 pairs will end up squabbling and fighting if there is not enough room.

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:55 pm

Do you know what species you have? If they are society finches (or another type of munia), they can probably get along in a trio or as two pairs. If they are zebra finches, however, one pair or 6 or more birds per enclosure (if it is big enough) is recommended. If zebras are housed with 3-5 in a cage, they tend to fight a lot more, as lia-w suggested.

Other species vary in how tolerant they are of sharing their space.

Rue · Post by **Rue** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:50 am

Keep in mind too...that unless you really want to breed them (and find homes for all the babies) you can have a male- or female-only cage...

You can also mix compatible species...