FINCHforum

I need help with my male gouldian finch. He spends all day biting at the aviary mesh. He will have little breaks to feed, preen and sing to himself but then he goes back to biting at the mesh. He was in with a female gouldian and he still did it. She died now he is in with two 3 month old star finch he still sits there doing it. He has fresh food and water sand and grit. It drives me nuts because I cant watch and hear him doing it all day. why is he doing it?? I give him greens and any bits and bobs to nibble at but he dosnt touch it.

This one has me stumped, I don't recall hearing about this problem with a finch before. Hopefully, someone else will come up with some suggestions. The only reason I can think of is boredom, yet you say he did it when he had a mate sharing the cage. Though many finches don't play much with toys, some do, so you might try hanging some toys, mirrors, swings in the cage to see if you can get his mind off the wire mesh. As far as different food, Gouldians are not the best at eating different foods, kind of like some children. Sometimes if you just keep offering choices, they will eventually try something. Besides greens, you could put in a slice or two of cucumber, or thawed pea/carrot/bean mixture, or slice a round or two off an ear of corn. Spray millet is a great treat that most finches enjoy. I notice you say he has sand, I don't know that he really needs that. Finches don't need gravel to hull their seed, since they do it themselves, but they do need a nice mineral mix (oystershell grit is good for this).

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at the Finch Information Center, linked at left, where you will find many articles about diet, housing, and various species of finch. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier when answering locale-specific questions later on.

Love your member name, makes me want to go make a cup of tea!

earl grey Welcome to the forum. I've never heard of this either. I'm not sure if you have greenery in your cage...even green plastic plants. My only thought of a possible solution is to have plants around the cage blocking off where the bird is prone to chew. It's also often a good distraction.

thankyou for you reply I posted a pic of their cage, when I say sand I mean bird sand lining the bottom of the cage(sorry my fault for not explaining) Im thinking he wants to build a nest and pick at things maybe?[album][/album]

my gouldian is named Earl Grey because of his grey head, thankyou.