Page 1 of 1

Cage noise and size questions

Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 12:06 am
by Lyn&Roy
Hi everyone,
we are first time bird owners, middle aged, with 4 little young java finches. They have been here for one week.

When we picked these, we got 4 because the aviary people said the large flight area with a couple dozen young javas, were 4 mos old or less. So cannot tell male female and we are more likely to have one of each.

The cage we have seems okay in some ways, it is 24 by 26 inch base and people height with metal roof. I can upload a picture if useful.

The javas being a bit bigger than other finches, even when young, make the whole metal roof reverberate, whenever they fly near the top. I think we could put felt in there somewhere to cut that down, but we also get the clangy reverb when opening any of the (nice bunch of ) doors, which is not completely muffled by elaborate finger pressing on the bars at the same time. Is this to be expected ? It doesn't seem good.

Would small finches or a parrot or two make this cage less noisy ?
We only plan on the 4 for now, maybe next winter we would opt to see if any breeding would happen.

We could instead build a cage with the obvious preference for length over height. Tho they are not now terribly disturbed by the cage size. We thought of letting them fly in the open room sometimes, but that's another forum. Sometimes these finches use the lower part of the cage (put some more pear and forsythia branches in there) but not very much. Would that change as they get used to the environment ? Eg. wondering if a water tray could go on the floor ? (we are trying different bowls and plates in different spots, they already have one fave)

Thank you for comments. Finch people in general seem very nice and have a good perspective on pets, as in enjoyment of their nature !

Re: Cage noise and size questions

Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:01 am
by L in Ontario
Would small finches or a parrot or two make this cage less noisy ?
We only plan on the 4 for now, maybe next winter we would opt to see if any breeding would happen.
I would not recommend adding any finches (and never a parrot) to the Javas in this size cage. 26 square inches is too small for Javas to fly properly in which is why they are not using the top. They need more horizontal flight space. And also - there is no room for any more Javas in this cage either - so no breeding in here. Sorry! This would be more suitable for smaller finches - probably only about 8 to 9 non-breeding finches since it's about 5' tall. Just my 2 cents worth.

Re the vibration noise - that's not typical and should not be happening. I would use some felt as you suggest. Can't think of much else.

Re: Cage noise and size questions

Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 10:55 am
by Lyn&Roy
omg did not mean adding small finches with javas, nor adding more javas to the cage.

Pardon for not making the question clear.

Re: Cage noise and size questions

Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 11:04 am
by L in Ontario
I've never had Javas in particular. I hope you are enjoying them. Are they very active? Do they 'play with toys'?