Replacement mate/companion for shaft-tail finch

[leo11m]

Greetings....I am new to this forum, and in need of some advice. We have had a pair of creamino shaft-tail finches for the past year, and the female suddenly died on Tuesday.

I need to get moving on getting our male shaft-tail a companion or two (due to the quarantine process), but we don't need a breeding pair, and we want to stop worrying so much about Calcium plus and all of the other things that breeding pairs need (although our birds' eggs never hatched). We are not opposed to a female, but we would like to get male companions if at all possible. Our little guy absolutely loves to sleep in his nest, and sometimes chill out in there during the day, so we will always keep a nest in the cage, or more nests if the additions need them.

Ideally, we would like to get three more birds, so that one bird does not have to deal with being alone during the long quarantine process every time we introduce a new bird.

Would it be problematic to add another male shaft-tail (thinking of a regular shaft-tail or fawn , and a couple more other male Australian finches of similar size (Parrot finch, Star, etc.)? We'd love to have all shaft-tails, because of their great personalities, but not sure if that would work. When we initially got our pair, they were in a cage the same size as the one we have (noted below), and were housed with a parrot finch and a regular shaft tail. Everyone had gotten along great for a few months, but I don't know what gender those other birds were.

I have no idea if four male birds would fight. so we are open to whatever arrangement of gender and breed would work best. Any suggestions on what to do would be great.

The cage is 53 inches high, 32 inches wide.

Thank you!

[Sally]

I haven't had Shaft-tails, so I can't say how well 4 males would get along, but I did want to welcome you 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 members to answer locale-specific questions later on.

Your cage is 53 high and 32 wide, but how deep is it?