Colony breed owl finches?

lstyles · Post by **lstyles** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:03 pm

I have a large cage and two pairs of owl finches that I want to breed. Could they all be put in the same large cage with nests? I don't really care who mates up with who as they are all unrelated.
thanks,
Lori

nelloyello11 · Post by **nelloyello11** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:51 pm

I know some people only have success cage breeding owls, but with only 2 pair, you might be okay.
One issue I can see though- if you plan to make pairs out of offspring from these to pairs, you will have no way of knowing if they are related or not. One female may be bred by one or both males, so you could end up with offspring from both males in one nest. Plus, when they fledge, it will likely be difficult/impossible to tell which fledglings came from which nest. But again, this only matters if you plan on making pairs of the offspring.

monotwine · Post by **monotwine** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:57 am

You could try. Though you will have to watch for aggression between pairs. I find them rather stroppy with each other over nest sites. I've also found the hens to be really fickle and they swop mates all the time, never settling down to breed properly.

If you want good results I'd personally separate the pairs after they've indicated with mate they prefer. Unfortunately I've also found that the hens must choose their partner or they will quite happily ignore the one you give them.

cindy · Post by **cindy** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:44 am

I have two flights of owls....if your are bandedwith colored bands and you see who pairs up, preen their partner I would separately cage/flight breed pairs. Provide them multiple tube nest and boxes to choose from. I hang an ABBA box and a tube nest, the young fledge and go to the tube nest as the parents tend to the younger ones still in the nest.

I have close to 2 dozen owls now...they are fickle, do not like nest checks.

How old are the owls? I would make sure your pairs are as close to a year old before setting up a breeding situation, especially in regards to hens. Breeding a hen at 3 to 6 months is to young, anything under a year and your hen could have difficulties or they are not mature enough to care for young. They do not mature as fast as zebras.

Christopher Smith · Post by **Christopher Smith** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:34 pm

lstyles wrote:I have a large cage and two pairs of owl finches that I want to breed. Could they all be put in the same large cage with nests? I don't really care who mates up with who as they are all unrelated.
thanks,
Lori

I think you need more birds. Two pairs is not really a colony and there is a good chance you are going to see some negative stuff like aggression, nest sharing, one male pairing with both hens or same sex pair bonding. I think if you add another pair you will get better results.

I had a colony of 5 pairs in a 5' x 10' x 8' and they bred very well for 3 seasons.

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Colony breed owl finches?

Colony breed owl finches?

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