FINCHforum

Hi, I’m hoping to get a pair of owl finches soon, however I have a few questions and I was wondering if you guys might be able to help.

I live in an apartment, so I’m a little worried about the noise the birds make (I really rather not receive noise complaints). The birds would be kept in the study, which shares no walls with any neighbours, so in effect there will always be another room between the birds and my neighbours.

Would owl finches be too loud to keep in an apartment? From what I’ve understood (and heard on YouTube) they seem relatively quiet.

Also, I’ve read that they cannot stand cold temperatures. As I’ve said, the birds would be kept indoors, however, as I live in the UK the indoor temperature gets cold in winter if I don’t turn the heating on. Will the heating from the radiator be a suitable method to keep them warm, or should I be looking into heat lamps?

I find owls to be relatively soft spoken like gouldians. Mine enjoyed playing in the snow during the winter in New Jersey. I would not say they are delicate at all. I'm sure they will do just fine indoors for you as long as the temperature change isn't sudden.
Best of luck

debbie276

Nice shot of the aviary in the snow! How beautiful!

Thank you debbie276 I think it was FinchInfo that said they do poorly if they're housed in temperatures below 20°C and I got a little concerned about the room temperature, so I'm really glad to hear that they're not that delicate after all

MiaLitla

Owls are quiet little sweethearts.

Mine are indoors, and do just fine with central heating.

What I do, is clip a small lamp to the side of the flight (with a regular 60w bulb), and they like to 'sun' themselves under it .

I live in Canada, so we do get some extreme temperatures in the Winter. On days, when the bird room feels a bit chilly, I plug in a very small electric heater/fan, and within ten to fifteen minutes the whole room is quite comfortably warm.

I think you will love Owls

Thank you for the tip about the lamp, lovezebs , I'll definitely have to look into sorting out something similar

Since I've only had owls a short time I'm still discovering their personalities. I would have to say they are quite vocal. As far as being loud neighbors would never hear them. I would consider them on par with societies as far as volume goes.

Thank you kyle , that's really good to know I was a bit worried about whether they'd bother the neighbours so it's nice that they're not too loud

debbie276, I guess I'll stop worrying about my aviary birds getting cold in Central FL! ;) What a beautiful aviary!!

I love my owl finches. I have 6. We were keeping them outside with several cages of Gouldians and Star Finches. The temps went down to 37, and here in Phoenix that's pretty low. At the moment, everyone is in the garage because we had problems with rats. We're having an aviary built in a few weeks so they will all end up outside again. This time with a lot more protection from the rest of nature. In any case, I love the owls. They are always singing when I'm cleaning cages or feeding.