FINCHforum

I have a couple of budgies and I was thinking of getting aviary and putting some finches in, what do you guys think?

I started up my avery because my sister-in-laws elderly neighbour had to move and dismantle his avery. I got 11 zebra finches from him and one female budgie.
When I got them home and went to put them in, I opened the nesting box that the budgie was in and she was sitting on 22 eggs!

I found that although the budgie was ok towards the finches, the finch eggs did keep disapearing which I later found out to be the budgie. She was also quite destructive and loved to sit and strip bits of wood off the sides of the avery.

I don't know if these problems occurred because she was obviously very broody or if budgies in general are like this. In the end I gave her to a lady who had an avery with just budgies and was going to find her a mate.

This was my experience, I hope its of some help.

Ruth

ruth wrote:I started up my avery because my sister-in-laws elderly neighbour had to move and dismantle his avery. I got 11 zebra finches from him and one female budgie.
When I got them home and went to put them in, I opened the nesting box that the budgie was in and she was sitting on 22 eggs!

I found that although the budgie was ok towards the finches, the finch eggs did keep disapearing which I later found out to be the budgie. She was also quite destructive and loved to sit and strip bits of wood off the sides of the avery.

I don't know if these problems occurred because she was obviously very broody or if budgies in general are like this. In the end I gave her to a lady who had an avery with just budgies and was going to find her a mate.

This was my experience, I hope its of some help.

Ruth

Did she attack the finches?

ruth wrote:I started up my avery because my sister-in-laws elderly neighbour had to move and dismantle his avery. I got 11 zebra finches from him and one female budgie.
When I got them home and went to put them in, I opened the nesting box that the budgie was in and she was sitting on 22 eggs!

I found that although the budgie was ok towards the finches, the finch eggs did keep disapearing which I later found out to be the budgie. She was also quite destructive and loved to sit and strip bits of wood off the sides of the avery.

I don't know if these problems occurred because she was obviously very broody or if budgies in general are like this. In the end I gave her to a lady who had an avery with just budgies and was going to find her a mate.

This was my experience, I hope its of some help.

Ruth

Did she want to fight them.

No,she was never aggresive towards the finches and she had lived with them for a long time with the old chap. I wanted 2 breed the finches though. You could give it a try if you know your budgies natures.

Combining finches and budgies (or any hooked bill for that matter) is looking for trouble in my opinion. The may co-inside for days or even months but if a fight breaks out even for a couple of seconds a budgie can bite off a finch leg or worse kill it.

I know there are people who have done it but personally it’s not worth the risk to me.

Well I am currently building an Aviary which is going to be 5ft x 5ft and I have just two young budgies and I really want to get some finches and breed them.

Like I said, they may get along, but personally I wouldn't risk it, I don’t know your space constrains but why not keep the budgies in a separate cage, you will have more success breeding the finches if you give them some privacy. What type of finches were you considering?