FINCHforum

Hi

I am making my first aviary at the moment. Can anyone tell me? Is there a safe sealant I can use around the edges and bottom, will make hygiene and cleaning better to do this I think.

Would need to be safe for button quail as I will be getting some soon.

Many thanks for your help.

I can't remember where you are located, but I found this site (among quite a few others) when I did a search for low VOC sealants. You definitely want to seal all cracks and joints in the wood, as that also eliminates a place for mites to hide. If you put your general location in your profile, it helps when answering locale-specific questions like this.

http://www.osipro.com/greenseries.shtml

Thanks Sally.

Will have a another look at my profile, thought I had put the location in must have got that bit wrong.

I live on The River Medway in England.

This is how it is looking so far

Found some low VOC varnish to seal the wall mural at the back now.

That is going to be great! So you are living on a barge? An aviary on a barge, really a novel idea, can't wait to see more photos.

Yes we live on our beloved engineless barge which we are renovating, she was burnt out by a fire when a previous owner lived here - no one was injured apart from the boat, bless her.

Mine will be 'The Floating Finches

I have been going a little bit 'crazy and dizzy' from scouring the internet trying to find a low voc waterproof sealant available for sale here in the United Kingdom

If you or anyone else know of one then would be much appreciated.

It's the first aviary i've seen on a barge, looking good so far, love the wall mural.

With regards to sealants it would probably be best if you contacted a supplier such as 3M

http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal/3M ... adhesives/

I'm sure they could advise on a suitable sealant

Alternatively you might get away with varnishing or painting over a sealant your unsure about

Thanks Padraic.

Great idea to paint over it I get stuck for something, will try 3M they do good stuff.

What kind of finches do you keep? Is that Gouldians I see on your signature. These were some I wanted to try too.

Hi Stevie

I just purchased the 2 pairs of gouldians about 2 weeks ago so not much experience with them yet, they were an impulse buy as blue gouldians are very difficult to get here.
Other birds i have successfully breeding at moment are red headed parrot finches, various canaries and bengalese finches. The Bengalese are a good starter finch to gain experience with as the're very easy to breed, never aggressive and can also be used as fosterers for other finches.

Hi Sally and Padraic

Really appreciate all your advice, shame the products seem hard to come by here in the UK.

I just wanted to let you know I managed to solve the problem without the need for any sealant.

Not sure why I didn't think of this before. I used an old boating trick and used flexible wood in the corners which I butted/fitted close together, meaning no open gaps to fill. When this is all painted it will form a tight seal.

We often do this on boats because all joints move as you float and sealant has a habit of just cracking or falling out over time.