Newbie questions

[spooble]

Hello,
My name's Chad, and I'm a big newbie. I don't have any finches yet, but I'm in the planning stages. My projects usually take a long time, but they're well thought out.

I'm thinking of building a 5' W x 4' H x 2' D flight to sit in front of the window here in my computer room. I plan on starting with a single pair of zebra finches. Eventually, I'd love to have Owls and Goulds, but I figured I would start small. I've done tons of searching and reading and I think I have most of the major details worked out. The only thing I'm unsure of is the best way to do the floor/bedding. What do you guys suggest? Wire floor with a pull out tray? Pine shavings over linoleum? Course sand?

Also, I've wanted pet finches for several years now, but my wife isn't really a bird person. My original idea was to build one of the screen door aviaries outside, but I figured it would be best to start with something a little smaller and indoors. She was OK with the outdoor aviary... but she's unsure about the indoor cage. Any tips to help me win her over?

Thanks,
Chad

[Crystal]

I guess knowing what specifically she does not like about birds might help with trying to persuade her. Has she seen any in a pet store? They are messy, but they are also tiny (cute), not terribly noisy, and very entertaining to watch. They don't require attention. Sometimes they make a good conversation piece. I like to equate having an aviary to having a fish tank, but with more entertainment. Some varieties are more appealing than others as far as looks and song go. Maybe there is a species she would think attractive?

As for bedding, I personally like linoleum floor (easy to clean) with newspaper on top (even easier to clean, and very cheap). The newspaper isn't always very pretty though. I have also used fish tank gravel which is more attractive but harder to clean. I try to avoid wood shavings and products like corn cobb bedding personally because they can promote mold growth and some products (e.g. cedar) may be considered harmful. I think a product like Care Fresh or Yesterday's News or compressed newspaper pellets may be more attractive, safer, and fairly easy to clean.

[tammieb]

I use the rolls of brown wrapping paper you get at office supply stores in the bottom of my 6'x4' flight. It isn't free like newspaper, but it looks better.

I would suggest you try Societies rather than Zebras. They aren't as pesky as the Zebs and will get along with any birds you may later add to the mix.

Also, if it's the noise your wife objects to, the Societies have a softer song, while the male Zebs have a repetitive song that many people find annoying.

[plantsandbirds]

Welcome This is a nice group of folks on this forum.

Thank you for taking the time to look into birds and for thinking about their home so carefully!

I have Zebras, Societies and Spice finches (parakeets too!). I too find the Society song very pleasant...and my Humphrey looks so cute when he sings - tail all puffed out and mouth wide open!

I love my Zebras too...but truthfully their songs are not very attractive . My Julian, especially has an annoying "poink-a-CHINK-poink-a-CHINK" song. Sigh. My other male, William, and his son Pippin have the same song and it's a much nicer "tee-deedle-ee-deedle-DEE".

I think I read somewhere how the children learn the song from their neighborhood...I'd hate to have Julian breed and teach his children THAT song of his!

My Spice finch is very quiet and shy. He is beautiful though. He will make a very faint garbled little song, which is drowned out by the other cage denizens! He also makes a very pleasant "peeep".

I would think your wife would become charmed by the cute little finches. Mine all have different personalities and are great little friends!

Oh.....sorry....I get sidetracked talking about my little friends! I have Prevue flight cages and use newspaper on the bottom. I tried corn cob bedding, and although it looked nice it definately was organic and I had a mold problem under the water dishes even in changing the bedding twice a week.

[Thalia]

lol I was in the same position with my boyfriend. I was dead set on getting a cockatiel or parrotlet or something last year but he convinced me to wait... then friends of his moved to Europe and wanted to give us their finch (small snowball). Then we got him and he was sick, I nursed him back to health (snowball starts to grow) then decided to get him a bigger cage (bigger snowball) and a girlfriend, Andie (snowball starts rolling down the hill). Well Alfred ended up passing away, he was old and had been sick a long time. I wanted to give Andie away and get a budgie or parrotlet (snowball would have melted) BUT John talked me into getting another finch, Sam (snowball starts gaining momentum) then they started breeding, then they had babies and now we're planning on building a large indoor flight cage that will hold the 2 zebras, 2 shafttails and 3 button quail (snowball is now an avalanche).
Basically what changed John's mind was how happy the birds make me AND he realised how easy they are to care for. They make a bit of a mess, but you can fix that with cage liners and so forth, they do NOT smell, unless you let the bottom of their cage get wet and moldy and they're really entertaining!
I too was going to do zebras, goulds and owls, but after talking with people here I decided against putting the goulds and owls (passive birds) with the zebras and am now planning on the shafttails, which are very pretty and have a nice song. The button quail are an indulgence for me I'm going to be putting down linoleum for the floor and a thin layer of playsand for substrate, mostly b/c the button quail need to dust bathe in it. I was going to do a mesh floor with an access door, but since deciding on button quail I squashed that idea, since they can't live on a mesh floor. The button quail were actually instrumental in simplifying my flight cage design
I would have a talk (calm talk a couple glasses of wine, I find visual aides and facts and figures are also helpful) with your wife and find out why she doesn't want you to get the birds. John's problem was: smell, noise, expense and responsibility. He feels much better now that he knows they're not smelly, not really that noisy, not hard to take care of and not really that expensive, in comparison to our cats, crabs and ferrets. He was also dead set against the flight cage, until I showed him my plans, did research on building materials, it shouldn't even cost $100 to make mine, and showed him pictures and let him hear the songs of the birds I'm planning on getting. He hasn't been informed that I'll be getting a budgie for the old finch cage yet, but he will and he'll get used to the idea Good luck with your wife, I'm sure once she realises that the birds will make you happy and not really impact on her daily life that she won't mind.

[ocalona]

Hi Chad! Welcome to the forum. My husband was also a little bit wary of getting birds when I told him a coworker was getting rid of her's. But I convinced him since we were getting the cages also. We first got 4 Society finches. They are great to start out with, very quiet, love to bathe & fun to watch in the bath bowl. I then told her we would take the rest if she was still looking for a home. So we got 2 Owls & 8 Zebras! Big difference!. Don't get zebras if your wife doesn't like noise, the only time they are quiet is when they are asleep! The owls are great fun to watch & love to fly. They need a lot of space to fly back & forth, very active birds. Now my husband loves all of our birds, all 34 of them (just found out when we were moving 4 of our societies to a bigger cage that we have 2 new hatchlings!) I don't have an aviary, just cages, but if I were going to build I would do as Thalia said & go with linoleum flooring. I just saw my first button quails @ the pet store a couple days ago & fell in love. 1 day later & they were gone. So you might decide later that you want some & a mesh floor wouldn't work. By the way, my husband even washes the birds' dirty bowls!

[tammieb]

I agree that Spices would be a nice choice also.



They'll be the next birds I add to my aviary.

[Thalia]

wow ocalona you've got yourself a real convert. John will feed and water my birds, but he makes a clear point of informing me of the fact that he had to He is, however helping me build my aviary/flight cage so I guess I shouldn't complain too much

[spooble]

Thanks for all the replies! Looks like linoleum is the way to go. I read somewhere about putting down a week's worth of paper and pulling the top layer off each day. That sounds good.
I'll give the Societies some thought. I just settled on Zebras because they're cheap and available locally. I was under the impression that the Societies were expensive, but I haven't shopped around. That leads to me another question. Is it OK to buy from pet stores, or should I find a breeder? I searched on BirdsnWays, but I couldn't find anyone close (Greenville, SC).

Thanks for your help.
Chad

[tammieb]

Societies and Spices are going to be in about the same price range as Zebras, only slightly higher. They're worth it though. ;)

I've bought all my birds from petshops as there are no breeders in my area that I'm aware of. You just have to look around and buy the best looking birds you can find. Quarantine any bird/s you bring in later on.

[plantsandbirds]

I also purchased from pet shops because I could find no breeder in my area....I'm sure they are out there but I can't find them!

One pet shop had Societies and Spices together, which is OK, but they didn't know there were Spices in the cage too....had them all listed as Societies. As others have posted....you can get a bargain if they don't know what they have.

You might inquire at your pet shop. There are some in my area that have Zebras one week and Societies or Spices the other.

[kenny]

hi chad
welcome to the site,i would also say the societies would be better but dont stop getting zebras if thats what you like i started with them over 25 years ago and i still keep them aswell as the societies they will both do well in a mixed colection

ken

[StevePax]

My wife was against the whole thing at first, too. It took months, but she finally felt guilty enough to let me get a small cage. I went out and bought one that's 30" wide by 18" deep by 36" tall, and she 'bout flipped. I slowly worked on her, and now I have a pair of zebras in the basement in another cage, too. The key is to point out how you would do anything for her, and how you fully support her hobbies. Guilt is important here.

Seriously, though, the zebras can be noisy, though I really like their song. We keep ours in the basement family room so my wife won't have to listen to them all day long. Upstairs, the Cordon Bleu out-sings everyone and has a beautiful song, so she doesn't mind much.

You won't ever see her feeding any of them or cleaning anything, though, that's for sure.

Good luck.

[Thalia]

oh yeah zebras are totally noisy, I was teasing John today that he should have let me get my budgie and he was all pouty saying a budgie would be louder than the zebras and I laughed and said I didn't think 1 budgie would hold a candle to 6 zebras, especially 4 hungry fledglings whose mom and dad are trying to make them eat on their own The amount of noise the babies can make is unreal when they're hungry!

[spooble]

I'm with you on the guilt thing. I told my 2 year old daughter about my plans and now she goes around telling everyone that she's getting pet birds. Evil I know... but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I think my wife's main concern is the cost. She's pregnant and has that "How can we afford another kid?" attitude. I've been known to go a little overboard on projects like this.

Example: My poison dart frog Vivarium.




(Oh the flightless fruit fly memories...)
Yeah... but getting into finches is much cheaper. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have enough in my "play fund" to build the flight. I guess I should just buy the wood and start building. Then she'll see that it's not too expensive and everything will be ok. That, or I'll end up sleeping on the couch! Those pregnancy hormones can be tough