FINCHforum

I had to clean the main cage so moved everyone to a temporary cage during cleaning...

From left to right.
baby female, mother hen, baby male, baby male, baby male, and the dad.

They look great!

They're doing really well. It's funny, but the babies have changed the strawberry finch tune a little. They've added an extra note to the end of the verse. LOL Their song is great. Their feathers have really come in the past few weeks as noted by the pile of feathers on the floor around the cage.

They look gorgeous.

Very beautiful finches.

Congrats on the Strawberries ! They look very healthy and so cute too.

FinchsRUS
What a lovely little family. Congratulations.

Hi FinchsRUS .

Loving those healthy chick's .

I currently have 3 strawberry chicks , fledged a month ago , at what age did you'rs start to molt their juvenile plumage .
Also I don't see much difference between the juvenile male's and female chick , how do you know the difference in them ?

Any help much appreciated .
Mick .

The males have red 'backs' (above the tail feathers) and bright spots. The female doesn't have any red or spots. Well, she has 'spots' but they are very faint. The males sing, the female does not. So if you keep track of who's singing, I've never 'caught' the female singing. They've lost them now, but I had different color bands on their legs so it was easy to keep track of who was who before their spots came in.

As to adult plumage, I just vacuumed up a pile of feathers and they are officially 3 months old today. A few spot were visible 2-3 weeks ago but they fairly speckled now. I'll post pictures from the side in a bit.

Adult female


The males, (adult female poking her head out) I've since removed the red split band so it's not binding the foot.


Adult male: He's MUCH much redder in person. These were taken in low light with a cell phone.


Baby female

As to the seed they prefer:

Left to right:
Egg Food - they go through this quickly.
Terri's Millet Mix is the favorite (mixed by glamorous gouldians)
Grassfinch Maintenance Mix (mixed by glamorous gouldians)
Zupreem pellets xs size - they love these but eat more if they are placed high in the cage.

Love that they eat all that good stuff for you.

FinchsRUS
Do you feed them any greens at all? I find my pair and their fledgling chicks are highly independent on fresh cucumber every day. They eat out the ENTIRE middle portion on 4 big cucumber slices everyday.
Plus, I offer dried bloodworms, and a finely chopped mix of brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots, offered with eggfood.

Yes, daily. I hadn't thought about cucumbers. Hmm I'll buy them tonight. They love romaine lettuce and kale. Broccoli not so much.

On the other side if the cage they have free choice herb salad, freeze dried insects, bloodworms, and their favorite freeze dried bees, wasps and meal worms, some kind of larve things and who knows what else.

Wow. Strawberries are really pretty.