FINCHforum

Hi everyone,

My name is Adam and I'm new to the fourm. I have been coming here for about a year or so reading your posts! I live in New Hampshire. I see a few of you go to Bird supply NH in Nashua NH. I go there every week or so with my girlfriend Ashley. I am really happy about them extending the store. They have a great inventory!

Anyways on with my question. I have 6 black crowns. Right now they are not all in the same cage because I am quarantining a few of them.
I have a pair togeather and the male is starting to do his mating dance with the grass. They seem interested in the nesting material. Where should i go from here? I have those nesting material holders around the cage. I also have a wicker nest. The lavenders use to sleep in that but I had to take them out because they were stealing nesting material out of the black crowns mouth! Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

I have 6 black crowns, 4 lavender, 2 RCCB, 2 greenback twinspots, 2 RBFF, 4 zebra and 4 societys!

birdman603 It sounds like you have quite a nice collection of finches! How do you have them set up? I have some Black-crowned waxbills too, but have not had any luck breeding them (partly my fault, since I haven't really worked at it myself). Mine have started a nest, building their own in a plastic plant using coco fiber, but I think that the RCCB in the same cage are keeping them from completing it. I've heard before that Lavenders can be bad about stealing nesting material. That is one down side to having a group of finches together.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on finch care. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier for others to answer locale-specific questions later on.

birdman603 - Hi Adam, quite a while ago I started a thread on black-crowns in the 'species' section. Quite a few people chimed in with information and their experiences. Unfortunately, as far as I remember, nobody had had any success breeding them. At that time I had bought 4 (2 pairs it turned out) from an importer. They were not in great shape, went through the next molt, looked beautiful but then, over a period of several months, I lost one after the other for no obvious reasons.
I loved these little guys and would buy them again if I could find some that are not new imports.
Good luck and keep us updated.
Iso

Thanks for the reply.

I have a few A and E flight cages, the double wide and then the single. I also have the prevue Hampton deluxe triple stack breeder. I wish i bough the hq breeder because ite a lititle bigger iniside. Im just doing this because i love waxbills. I know i wont make any money!. Right now I have them all mixed up due to quarantine of new birds. The black crowns were not in the best shape when I got them either. Have been feeding them tons of egg food, vegetables, fresh eggs, sprouted seed etc trying to get them up to par. I actually have one with a broken toe or foot. I have him by himself but I am extremely concerned.

I still have 4, and at various times a male performed the straw display andthey also built nest for sleeping but got no further.
Perhaps because I have always kept them in a mixed aviary where they are about the smallest and shyest birds.
They would surely feel more comfirtable in a single species aviary.

unfortunately I don't have an aviary yet. They are in a fight cage. I am going to try them in individual cages and then if that fails put all 6 in one cage and see what happens!