Which finch?

jess_hawk · Post by **jess_hawk** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:21 am

Hello, my name is Emily and I am a college student.

I would like to keep between six and ten finches for a study on bird vocalizations. The birds will be well taken care of by me, my advisor, and possibly one or two other well qualified, carefully chosen people. I am doing research and my advisor has kept finches before and the study does not require the birds to do anything but make noise, nor have anything be done to them that would harm them. Also, arrangements will be made for the birds to be cared for by a well informed person within our Science department, if not me, after the study is finished.

I am currently trying to choose a finch species. I can easily acquire zebra finches, spice finches, and society finches at local pet stores; these are all within my price range. However, a pet store is not my first choice for buying a bird. I would prefer to find a local breeder. My first question, therefore, is if anyone knows of any breeders in Iowa or Illinois. I would prefer not to use Zebra finches; I need to keep cost at or below $20/bird. The birds will be subjected to a lot of handling, I am aware that this may be stressful for the birds but I hope to accustom them to being handled without undo stress before I begin my project.

At first glance, I am interested in Spice finches; Society finches also have their advantages. As previously mentioned, I would prefer to avoid Zebra finches. If I could find them in my area, I would love to acquire some owl finches (depending on price); my advisor would love some Gouldians but all of the gouldians I have located have been outside of my price range. Suggestions on other good finches would be appreciated. The type of vocalization does not matter, only that the birds do make noise.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:46 pm

Hi Emily,

I would suggest Societies for your project. They are inexpensive and would probably tolerate being handled better than any other species I can think of. Unfortunately I do not know of any breeders in your area. You might put an ad in your local newspaper to flush them out.

Good luck on your project... sounds like fun. Please stop in now and then to give us an update.

jess_hawk · Post by **jess_hawk** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:20 pm

Thank you for the advice.

I forgot to mention that I am also considering using parakeets for my project; but they have their own set of problems that I would first have to work out.

I am VERY excited about this project, I have never been allowed to keep birds (my mom has a thing about pets that make noise); however I have loved them for a very long time.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 4:23 pm

I was wondering if you had considered using parakeets. I recently added one to my household and enjoy having him sit on my finger. I was told to get a young bird as they are easier to hand tame, so I looked for the forehead stripes and chose one I felt would be easy to work with. Unfortunately, he is rather fearful and still bites. Ouch!