FINCHforum

Hello group, its been a while since I posted but if you remember I'm out on military training. I finally graduate tuesday. Anyway..I found out today that over the weekend 4 of my finches died. I'm hoping to see if anyone can offer some explanatinon of what happened.

A friend came to the house to feed the birds and called to say the birds were missing. We couldn't figure out what was going on and soon found out that the four birds were inside the seed dish. All were found dead? My wife left to come see me the day before and all were alive and well. We had a major storm come through so we think they might have been scared and gone in the seed cup. For me that didnt make sense because they have been though many storms before. I do have one other finch in a cage by himself (my avatar) and his alive and well. I need to know why the birds would bunch up in the seed dish and what could have caused them to die. It doesn't make sense to me that they couldnt get out or were stuck b/c the one on top would have been able to. If anyone can please explain why or how something like this could happen I would really appreaciate it. I have been gone 3 months and on my way home tuesday and this happens now?

Thanks...and I promise to come around more. I know you all miss me!

I am so sorry about your bird loss. It sounds like they starved. They were in the feed cup looking for food. Maybe the friend did not feed. Maybe the friend saw the hulls on top and assumed they had food. Many people don't realize that finches don't often dig down past a lot of hulls... but with 4 finches for 4 days... one seed cup doesn't go far.
Was there water? Birds can die within 1 day without water.
Though it really sounds like starvation. ( fear or poison would not drive them to the seed cup, only hunger) So sorry.
Thanks for serving in our military

Hi, Hilljack, good to hear from you, but not the bad news. I agree with Candace, they may have had only hulls in the seed cups, and they were trying to find something to eat. It can be very deceiving, when you look at a seed cup--looks fine, but it's actually empty of real seeds. I imagine the little birds have been disposed of, but if not, have someone feel their breasts. The breastbone should be able to be felt, with meat on either side of it. If the breastbone feels really sharp, that tells you the birds were not getting enough to eat.

Thanks for the replies. My wife left Friday night to come to where I am now and she feeds them daily. They left at night and our friend didn't come over until it was dark saturday to feed them. That is why we thought the storm somehow scared them into the seed cup. They have 2 seed cups and one water bowl. Our friend said it looked as if they got into the cup and threw all the seed out somehow. But why would they all be in the cup? I had them put the cup with the birds in a ziplock bag and put them in the freezer until I can get home to look at them myself. Hopefully I will find something in the crops.

So sorry to hear this bad news. It is devastating when something like this happens to our little birdies.

I'm sorry.

So sorry for your loss

Thanks for the condolences. I'm looking at buying from a breeder in NJ. Does anyone have any knowledge of these guys?

New Jersey Finch Quest
www.newjerseyfinchquest.com/index.htm

I sent you a pm about the Atlanta bird fairs. You should be able to find some there and then you wouldn't have to go so far to get them.