FINCHforum

Hi, some advice required. I have 2 female Australian finch ´sisters’ , 5 years old, in a large cage. They always sit huddled together grooming each other etc, all very cute and amicable. On a recent supermarket trip I spotted and brought a little wicker nest that sits on the inside of cage. It has room for both birds to snuggle but only one did, and I never noticed whether the other tried and no room, or was not allowed in to sit with her sister. So I brought a 2nd thinking they could have one each, and after watching today I spotted the same finch going for her sister if she attempted to get in the 2nd one! Basically she seems to want both for herself. She now loves sitting in the nest but I feel bad for the other one that they don’t sit together anymore- my question should I remove both nests completely, or move 1 nest to other side of cage and try that?
Any advice would be great,
Thanks,
Amy.

MrsAmyP

Removing the nests would work best; it should reduce aggression and discourage either of them from laying eggs, which may otherwise lead to egg-binding.

Definitely remove nests! I have a mixed breed finch aviary and when I had nests there was a lot of fighting. I left the nests in for a while because I thought they needed them and I felt bad taking them out. I eventually took out the nests and it’s amazing how fast the fighting stopped. Now everyone gets along! I think the nests kick in some kind of instinctual behavior to be territorial and aggressive. You should only use nests if you are going to breed to stop fights. Also, when I had nests my females were always laying unfertilized eggs and this is stressful on their bodies. Now they have stopped. Plus finches like to be with other finches and will get depressed if alone so taking out the nests will bring them back together.
Good luck