Entertainment for a single finch

[sparrowsong98]

One of my finches just died. Given that he had everything he needed and should not have passed away, I want to quarantine my remaining bird before selling her or getting her a new mate. It has only been 10 minutes and she is already calling for her mate. She has a mirror and swing and a bell to play with, so is there anything else I can do for her like moving her to a room with more activity? I want the month of so she is being quarantined for to be as easy as possible for her.

[Fraza]

sparrowsong98 you could add a foraging box

Or you could add in a mix of treats like cuttlebone,millet,iodine blocks etc,long grass threads, oysters grit, egg mix and have it all in a tub and then she will have something to entertain herself with

[Fraza]

Or you could add a plant in ther

[sparrowsong98]

Fraza oh I forgot to mention her box. She has one and likes it, but roght now she is just sitting in her favorite perch calling. She looks over at the mirror and talks to it and jumps on it and peers around the other side looking for the bird in the mirror but cannot find him.

[Fraza]

sparrowsong98 that’s sad can you not get her a mate sooner

[MisterGribs]

I have in the past made a sort of 'finch tv' using mealworm beetles inside a transparent container hanging from the cage. They didn't make any attempt to eat the beetles, but they would watch them for hours, every day. I believe it does occupy the prey-seeking part of their brain, and provide some sort of satisfaction, as wherever I moved the 'finch tv' the birds would follow.

It was just a transparent ornament capsule with some substrate, food, and climbing places for the beetles hung in the cage. I would just give them some carrot shreds whenever their food ran out.

[sparrowsong98]

MisterGribs
That sounds like a good idea, and I laughed at the name 'finch tv' but I cannot imagine my mother letting me bring live mealworms into the house.

[sparrowsong98]

Update on my Hen:
She is kind of moping around and hiding in her foraging box. I have given treats, music, and many other forms of entertainment, but she sits, and calls for hubby every once in a while and gets up to eat and drink. I am genuinely worried she is depressed, but i do not know what depression in birds looks like. Anyway, I think the best thing to do is get a mate now. Could I put him in a neighboring room so she can talk to him? Then, if she is sick and dies, I will have a whole other problem, but she seems pretty healthy despite her behavior. But if she is not, I think that will be best. then at the end of her quarantine time, he will be quarantined as well, and they can go right in together. Will this work better than my former plan of keeping her quarantined for 4 weeks before bringing in a male or not?

[Fraza]

sparrowsong98 I don’t think it really matters I’ve got an aviary full of different birds and I’ve only ever quarantined abit 2-5 of them and I’ve not had an illness in their

So I think it would be better her having a mate. But that’s my opinion not everyone else is ?

[sparrowsong98]

Fraza I am definitely quarantining because the male I had died under suspicious circumstances, and the chances of his mate being sick are raised because of that.

[Fraza]

sparrowsong98 you can take other precautions too tho like catching ur remaining hirdlooking closely at its face under feather/ skin check it’s poop and listen to it’s tweet and if everything is normal it’s likely that that’s normal and fine

And your other one could have died from anything like a heart attack or they’re could have been a hair in the cage that got stuck on its neck anything like this my first pair of zebs had a fine hair stuck round the males neck when I got back from holiday

[MisterGribs]

I wouldn't be too worried about her depression so far. If she starts to self pluck, then something is terribly wrong, but otherwise she just seems to be very sad.

[sparrowsong98]

MisterGribs ok thanks. Maybe in a few days she will be better. She was enjoying the soundtrack of a movie we watched last night so much she chirped along with it, which is a first since my male died.

[Sojourner]

sparrowsong98

How's your little gal doing now? My male society lost his mate last summer and due to my own illness and the prolonged illness and eventual death of my beagle, I had not got him a new friend.

They will mourn for awhile and then they will adjust. As MisterGribs said, as long as she doesn't start self-plucking, she will adjust. I do think that having a pair of parakeets in the same room with my little finchly widower has helped him to feel less lonely.

When I quarantine I place the quarantine cage on the opposite side of the room and let them "talk" to each other and watch each other. Then they are semi-adjusted. Move things around in the main cage a bit before introducing the new bird to make it all seem like "New Territory" to both birds.

I always quarantine. It only takes ONE sickly bird to kill off the majority of your aviary to make you regret not taking the time to quarantine.