FINCHforum

My mother was raising finches and canaries (and siamese cats) in the 60s and 70s.

At that time, finches and canaries were quite cheap - they were still being trapped wild in droves, and the local 5 & 10 store was owned by a guy who had a taste for "exotic animals" - he kept a monkey in a tiny cage in the shop. Poor monkey. But that was a different time. People didn't realize. Anyway.

So he regularly got in droves of small birds, that you wouldn't usually see in small town Midwest pet shops of the era. And the finches, canaries, and parakeets were cheap. (She had parakeets as well, but I don't recall her expending any effort to breed those).

I know she had 5 or 6 different breeds of finches. But I can only remember for sure Javas and Zebras. I am pretty sure she never had any Societies, as I didn't recognize those at all when I saw them in the pet store the other day. I know she didn't have anything that was actually rare, they were all common finches - in the wild, and at that time, at least. I think she had some Masked finches - those look familiar.

But I cannot for the life of me figure out any other breeds she had. I'm sure there were 2 or three others.

Does anybody know what varieties of finches would have been easily found in pet shops in the 60's? Or at least not too hard - I think we had access to more different kinds, and more of them, because of the guy who owned the 5 & 10 taking a personal interest in them, where they probably otherwise would not have been so easily found in a farming community of the time.

Fascinating question. I'm sorry I don't have any useful information, but I'm interested to see if anyone else does.

Hello, I would venture to say that she could have had something new at the time but no real market appeal for the masses. I grew up in south fl. where a lot of birds came and went. The Aviary in Cauley Square use to be owned by Ray And Linda Petters my very good friends. I was at the time collecting. this was the eighties, and in just about every shipment was a finch never seen before. Guess who got them? Anyway I would have to wait for her to figure out what it was and then and only then would she let me have them. Never paid less than $250.00 a pair. Now I only see about 80% of what I saw then. So it is possible that you might not find one now in a pet store that you use to see. Google Finches images and have fun looking.

I first became interested in finches in the 70's. My parents were living in Germany at the time, and they took me to a local store similar to a K-Mart to show me the tiniest birds I'd ever seen. I was living in Honolulu at the time, and I started collecting them. I was able to find Stars, Red-cheeked Cordon Bleus, Gray Singing finches, and several others that I can't even recall now. Gouldians were out of the question--they were considered very delicate and only for the experienced. I do know that I didn't have any Zebras or Societies then. Once I moved back to Houston, I had a difficult time finding any more finches, the local pet shops didn't seem to carry them.

Information on care was hard to find, we didn't have all the supplements, etc., that are available today. Hartz Mountain was the big pet supply company then, it was difficult to find a pet shop that carried much variety in finch supplies. I think it probably depended on the part of the country. I'm sure Florida and California had lots to offer then, as now.

I grew up in Northwestern Indiana, and we had a department store called Goldblatts that had an amazing pet department in the 60s.
They sold spider monkeys, macaws, alligators and common pet shop birds like budgies, canaries, zebras, societys, and java rice finches but they also had strawberry finches, lavender finches, gold-breast waxbills, Brazilian cardinals, green singers, painted finches and wydahs to name a few. The prices were amazingly low and it was always a treat to go there and see the bird selection.

My mother had lots of finches in a large cage. Every time she went to the city & saw something different, she bought it and added it to the collection. No quarantine. It went from the little cardboard box into the cage. I remember seeing cordon bleus, a black and orange finch I think they called an orange bishop weaver, whydahs, two very tiny olive green finches with a light yellow breast and red beak, a canary and several others. They lived for many years with no special care, just Hartz Mountain seed, gravel, and fresh water. Once in a while she would give them a piece of apple or lettuce, but no vegetables or egg food. In separate cages, she had cockatiels and diamond doves and a pretty orange canary. That was in Pennsylvania.

Goldblatt's sounds VERY much like Foys!

I've looked through pictures and can safely reject a lot of the choices - the most exotic looking birds she had were the Javas and the Zebras. The rest were fairly ordinary looking.

I am pretty sure that she had masked finches, and now that I've seen them, I bet she had some Heck's finches as well.

She may have had some waxbills, those look familiar. And I'm pretty sure she had some silverbills - she had some plain brown birds and those look about right.

I bet she had some societies, only they were called Bengalese at the time. Almost any color variation that was mostly brown would have been about right, but nothing exotic.

For sure there were no brightly colored birds, so no strawberries (unless she only had females), no cordon bleus or Goldians and most definitely nary a single finch that looked like Woody Woodpecker, LOL!

This was an interesting thread. It just goes to show you that kids notice and remember more than you think. I bring my four (almost five) year old grandson to the bird fairs and hope some day he will want to have his own birds. My son and daughter are interested but it is not the most " interesting thing" at the moment....but some day.... Recently at the Pasadena bird fair, after I purchased a bird, my grandson rolled his eyes at me and said "Gammie! Not ANOTHER bird?".
It's an addiction....and they don't know it yet, but....it's contagious....what can I say....