FINCHforum

I bought some 3 Heck's grassfinches and a diamond sparrow male (or as you call it shafttails and a firetail) yesterday. I battled to sex the grassfinches, the male I could clearly sex, but decided to get an extra female for in case the female turned out to be a male.

Then this morning I went to the petshop to buy finch-rings. There was a chap who brought in a lot of birds. There were 7 silverbills that the petshop would not take, he said that they were all sick. The other chap who also worked there on saturdays were trying to talk the birdowner in giving him the silverbill as they all are going to die. I then said to him that I will take them. I gave him R100 (10$) for the lot. I put them outside in the sun and all but 2 are eating their heads off.

Awesome finches, I always loved the diamond firetail especially the mutations. I also love shafttails but I like the yellow beaked more than the red ones, but they're still awesome.
Are the silverbills indian or african?

wessel They are African silverbills. The Indian sb has a white tail I believe. I just came back home and checked out the silverbills. They all look well. I see that the one has an overgrown beak. Can I just cut that off?

I know enough people who do that, with the same scissors you use for nails, make sure that the upper and the lower parts of the beak are equal at the end. After you've done that you must use a file to give the beak a normal shape again. Make sure you don't cut to far.

MariusStegmann
Happy for you. I am enjoying my Shaft Tail couple. They are really lovely looking birds and seem to be settling in very well. In pictures, boy in pict with little zebra, and girl in bottom picture. I know nothing of sexing them, but am told that boys have the wider black bib.

As to the Silverbills, hope they all do well for you. A very good price I must say.

It was really very easy to sex them after observing them in the aviary. The cock makes a peculiar clucking sound and nibble the hen in the neck. The cock also has a more upright stance. It is really very difficult to got on the width of the bib alone. The cock's beak is redder and more rubust. The cock feels stronger when you have him in hand. The problem is when you want to get young birds and buy birds, whose beaks have not coloured up completely.

Nice new additions Marius! I hope you can get the silverbills up and moving

They all look fine after spending the whole day outside in the sun.

Nice looking Grass finches you got there.
I hope the Silverbills will also do well - good luck with them!!

Thx, Chris. I managed to kill all 8 of my grassfinches before the winter by overdosing their worm medicine. Now I have to start again. My kids at varsity is killing me financially and I can't afford to spend a lot of money on birds. I didn't want the silverbills and won't keep them. I just didn't want the previous owner to give it to one of the petshop workers. That guy was taking advantage of him, telling him that the birds won't see out the day, but he will take it off his hands for free and try and nurse them back to health. I only had a R100 in my pocket and that is what I offered the guy. They are all fine. They were probably left without food since yesterday afternoon.

MariusStegmann -- Score on the Silverbills!
Mine went from super unwell to seemingly normal in about 36 hours. It's crazy how quickly these little birds can recover.

What lovely shafttails! They're quite lovely.
He looks so big and proud beside the little zebra hen! And I see you have a cutthroat in there too!
I'd love another pair. My last 2 pairs were rather bossy and they were difficult to match up in a community cage. But so very lovely!

MariusStegmann
Congrats on your new additions and Good Job on rescuing the silver bills. I hope they continue to improve and you can find them good homes.

Congrats! They're all little beauties. As for the overgrown beak...I have trimmed a crossed beak on my male gouldian a few times with a bird nail trimming scissor. It was easy...just do a little at a time. Best of luck with your new additions.

MiaCarter
Mia, those pictures are my guys, not Marius'. LOL!!! But thanks fir the comliment anyway .

lovezebs -- Haha Oops!
Well, they're lovely!
I love the stately, distinguished look of your shafttail alongside the zebra. So cute!

That's funny that they do well with the cutthroats! My shafttails and cutthroats were always at odds. I wouldn't call them aggressive, but mine were definitely pushy, even when they had tons of space during free fly! They were why I started doing separate free fly sessions.
But I'd love some more shafttails and cutthroats. They're just such pretty birds and the shafttails always seem to have great personalities.