FINCHforum

Interesting little follow up on the societies exchanged for the sick spice (original post in Health): Having frequented this particular petstore I noticed a bunch of little beaks peaking out of the basket in the society cage for a few weeks. When I made the exchange the manager spent another moment fishing around the cage after capturing the guy I chose, and much to my surprise she threw in an adorable little fledgling, later explaining that since this chain was not a breeder she could not sell the little guys. After spending the first day with his older comrade who diligently kept the little guy nourished, I decided to see if he had yet acquired the instintinctive fear of bipedal primates. Not at all! Quite a trusting little fellow he has turned out to be. What's more, I got him at the tail end of the weaning process apparently, since he seems to have no problem de-hulling millets and munching on pellets. I've now spent enough time with him that when out of the cage he comes to my shoulder when given a few reassuring calls. I just wanted to share that in return for the responses to the original post.

Here he is napping next to his favorite guardian to the right, who incidentally may be his father, having veery similar markings and both sharing the crested heads (little bird wigs, haha)

So that whole ordeal turned out quite well. You don't have a spice finch, but you got a free Crested Society. That is wonderful that you have been able to establish a rapport with him. It's funny how these stores work, sometimes. My Strawberry hen came for free from my local PetsMart. She was in a cage with other finches, and plucked bald with no tail feathers left. I asked if they could reduce her price, since she looked so awful, and the manager said he couldn't give me a sale price, but he could let me adopt her for free! Today, she is beautiful--I don't think she would have lasted in that store cage.