FINCHforum

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??

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.

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.

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...