Essential Points

[L in Ontario]

Yes, I like it alot.. It needs to be a sticky for new members

This is a sticky in General Questions. Thank you all for your thoughts and comments - they are always welcome and considered.

[MissEdie]

Love the post liz-on removing hulls from seed in a feed dish. I use a hand held hair dryer on low at the cold setting then vacuum up the hulls that fall to the ground. Maybe useful tip for someone.

I recently started vacuuming out the hulls with my little kitchen dust buster. If you keep it at the right distance from the seed cup, it only sucks in the empty hulls.

Luv theses ideas!

[finchmix22]

Good Advice/Reminders for all of us finch lovers!!

Since my owls and Society's LOVE their nests, I separate males/females, so they can have nests, but not babies. I have had one mistaken sexing of a Society finch and ended up with 2 babies I did not expect, but I found homes for all the babies from last year.

[L in Ontario]

Very good idea on how to allow finches to enjoy the comforts of a nest but avoiding having to deal with chicks when they are not desired (by us).

[LuxandLolita]

Have a grid(bars) on the bottom of the cage for easy clean up!

Use a safe 'green' spray. works for poop AND most are safe!

Use seed feeders(but make sure they work) instead of bowls if you want to prevent egg laying in bowls.

If you get extra eggs, you can always give them to your fellow bird(that's a joke, i only do it for the sake of practice)

[Sherkhan]

Thank you for this post. I will need to go buy some items... and remove the nests? The societies sleep in their nest, all the 4 together in the same one and the zebra finches sleep on top of the other nests... I thought it was a good thing for them...

[L in Ontario]

Have a grid(bars) on the bottom of the cage for easy clean up!

Use a safe 'green' spray. works for poop AND most are safe!

Not to dispute a point, but if you cover the grid(bars) on the bottom of the cage with newspaper, you won't have to spray anything nor scrub the bars. Simply replace the newspaper as it gets dirty. Much easier and faster (less than 30 seconds per cage) than scrubbing grates and safer for the birds too.

[L in Ontario]

Thank you for this post. I will need to go buy some items... and remove the nests? The societies sleep in their nest, all the 4 together in the same one and the zebra finches sleep on top of the other nests... I thought it was a good thing for them...

You're most welcome. I know finches sure look cute in the nests... so darn cute!! But having nests only encourages breeding and possible bickering amoungst themselves. They really don't need a nest to be happy and healthy. They will be very content sleeping on perches. Once the chicks fledge and have been out of the nest for a day or two - simply remove the nest - it's not needed anymore.

[rozani]

Thanks for the advice.really useful.

[Brenda C]

Can I get information on a catch cage, I have homes for my finches but I have s stressful time catching them, 12 ft x 12 ft aviary..thanks

[RC Cordon Bleu lover]

Like this post. It was a great reminder. Thanks.

[Sally]

Brenda C

Here is a link to how one member solved the problem of catching birds in an aviary, complete with photos.

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php ... ge#p285134

[Brenda C]

I think I will take inventory tomorrow and as the fledglings are weaned on their own I will remove the boxes one by one ax the empty. I have homes for all but 4. My aviary is a 12 foot diameter circle, an old gazebo. I now have 20 birds. I want to give the 20 to their new homes and keep my two pair in the house. I was wondering about Owl Finches....

[Bhatta]

Can I get information on a catch cage, I have homes for my finches but I have s stressful time catching them, 12 ft x 12 ft aviary..thanks

I have a similar bird room. I capture the birds at predawn time in dark. A blue night-lamp can also be used because birds can not see well in blue light.

[TheWhiteFinchAviary]

Here here to all that L said in her original post!!

Someone contacted me just last week as a first time breeder asking if I would take in a female she raised but had no use for. "Do you have some sort of trading program?"

My response was that she shouldn't even begin to allow her birds to breed if she didn't have homes already lined up as L said. I told her it's every BREEDER's responsibility to find homes for their offspring, not anyone else's. I do take in unwanted finches if no other home can be found for them as I will do anything in my power to keep them from ending up in a shelter or worse on CL. But that's not an excuse to be irresponsible nor will I enable that crap.