FINCHforum

Sins I travel with my birds a few times every year I'll prefer if they go in the travel cage (or a smaller cage) by them self so I don't have to chase them around. And the cage I have now is a bit to big to easily catch the birds without stressing them so yesterday I started to train Malte to go into a smaller cage by himself and he did it on the first try without any trouble! =D He is really curious so I think that helps a lot and put some of his favourite foods in there (greens and sprouted canary seeds).
He go in and out now a lot but I haven't yet closed the cage.

Maleficum Great idea, especially when birds are in a larger cage. It is impossible to catch them quickly, so they do get stressed with all the chasing.

Sally I did the same with some of my budgies I had before. Much nicer and stress free for both me and the birds

He did really great today and the weather was so nice so I tasted to close the cage and take him outside for a vile! (My large cage is like 0,5 cm to wide to go through the door). He seemed to like it and sang a bit to the birds in the garden (have a lot of Eurasian tree sparrows and house sparrows breeding under my roof).

Very nice cage.

FLDoc Thank you =) I got it for free so I'm not complaining ;) My dad fix it so it got a flat top (originally it's supposed to have a roof but I didn't like it because it made it harder to fix the light and I couldn't have plants on top). Only thing I don't like is that it's only have openings in the front so it's hard reaching when I change branches and cleaning (or have to catch the birds).

For catching the birds, look for a butterfly net with a decent depth to the netting cup if you don't have birdmarts that carry long-handled nets. For your cage, I'm certain your father can clip some of the wire bars and replace with a hinged door made from chicken wire. A simple small clamp can keep it shut. These can be put in at different levels. It may help.

FLDoc I have had plans on making more doors (have doors I saved from my very first cage when I through it out).

The problem I have with using net to catch is getting around the branches.

Sometimes when I am trying to catch them, they will fly onto the side of the cage and I can get them there, but I understand. It is MUCH better to train them into the cage like you are doing. When dealing with the numbers of finches I have, it's not usually possible to do that and they are not tame. The long handled net is good also for when they decide that they want to fly around the room and stay on top of the curtain rods........... But I've learned to work around the branches if I can't pull them. Eventually they tire of being herded from one end of the flight to the other and slow down. That being said, those are my Societies and Zebras. The others that are in cages not as populated are more easily caught. And the exception are the last one or two Zebras that are still in the flight. I think those little suckers are contortionists.

The best trick i used for my budgies is... I trained them to stand on my hand and eat food.... When i have their favourite food in my hand and put my hand in the cage, atleast two budgies come on my hand and busy eating food.... At that moment, i will slowly pull my hand out and place them in the new cage.... They trust me so much! I will repeat the same with the other budgies in the cage...

I used to do this once a month to clean the cage