FINCHforum

Only 2 chicks, and they are both quite wary and extremely swiftly flying already, so in my two-part aviary it took some patience to get these pics!

w.l.
More wonderful babies! Would mind sharing what sort of set up you have for these guys and the lavenders?

Your baby Cordons are adorable!!

w.l. They are so CUTE!!! I want to pinch their little cheeks!!!! OMG I love them!!! You are just full of fledges over there huh? Congrats on all the babies!! And I wouldn't mind seeing your set up either. I'll be it's something! Thanks for sharing the photos of these Lovely Little Ones!!!

Good luck with them!!

lnlovesorange

I don't have a specific set up for the cordons, they live in what in Europe we call a "birdroom" eg a whole room turned into an aviary.
It seems to me that Americans use the same terms even fir a room holding birds in a number of small cages?

The room looks like this:
The balcony its door leads to has been turned into the birds' sunporch, intentionally sparsely furnished as I wanted to encourage the birds to spend more time in the safer indoor section.
Still I put there 2 nestboxes too, just in case.

Nice set up! And congrats on your new babies! Soooo cute! The CB's are one of my favorites! Good luck with them!

w.l. WOW, that is amazing. Beautiful!!! You must have some happy birds. I think in America we call birdrooms if there are no cages, or if there are cages, for example Sheather has an AMAZING set up (so jealous of his "Birdroom") he used to have cages for them to go in at night if they wanted too, but he realized they weren't really using the cages, so I believe he took the cages out. But my hope is to one day have a birdroom, like yours, or any kind of room that I can dedicate to just my birds, right now, my bedroom I share with 9 roomates (9 birds!) lol But something like what you have is magnificent, Love how you have incorporated the outside so they can get the natural sun, if/when they want. It's just spectacular. Wonderful set up and beautiful birds, best of luck with it all!! I'm sure your birds are extremely well cared for, and very happy (:cough: spoiled...) lol

lnlovesorange

Well, all my adult birds are wild-caught so no place can be too big for them. Most were visibly very stressed and miserable while still kept in the standard 30" cages and they really change once they get into my birdroom. I just have to be careful not to add any aggressive species to the mix! I do think that when one chooses to keep wild-caught birds, extra effort should be made to try and compensate them for the loss of their natural habitat as much as possible.
It's different from keeping zebras and societies that were born and have lived all their lives in cages and are content that way.
I still have some birds in cages (from the 30" size up) but feel so guilty about it and try and keep considering it temporary only.

w.l.
Wonderful bird room! What is it you use on the floor?

Derk

It's black volcanic sand.

w.l.
That would explain the large tiles set into it. Simply put - why? Is it easier to sweep up than regular sand? Really cheap? It looks really nice!

Derk

For one it is less dusty and shows droppings well, so indeed easier to sweep. But the main reason I got this is more simple. As I live on a volcanic island, this type of sand was readily available as building material. Actually what to use as floor covering was a major dilemma when setting up the room. Changing all the sand at one point would be a nightmare I can't even think of, but it remains surprisingly OK with the occasional sweeping. I hardly ever enter it as that causes great stress to the birds! I seem to have colonies of tiny ground-dwelling insects in the sand which may help reducing the droppings. Or may not...

w.l.
After I posted, I started to wonder if volcanic sand had antibacterial properties??? I may look into this, just out of interest...tiny bug colonies...do the birds eat them? I take it the aviary is not attached directly to the house - or is this one of those places where you just accept you get bugs? My brother lived in the southern States for quite a few years and they had an exterminator scheduled for every few months and that was just the way it was. My area, every fall, big spiders are seen in just about every house. People think they are coming in out of the cold. In reality, they are already in the house. What they are seeing is males looking for females. I just close my eyes and pretend I don't know they exist.

w.l.
Good luck with the CB chicks. What sort of live food do you feed?

Great idea with the volcanic sand. I have decided to redo my aviaries bottoms with black or brown gravel. I hear it t stops the birds being affected by cocci and would prevent a lot of worm infections. No more Mr Nice Guy, and less sick birds. I currently have normal earth bottoms as I know that the birds like to dig around in the earth, but I have lost a lot of birds to cocci / bacterial infections.