Temporary exhibition of colorful finches

[Stine]

As some of you might recall, I work in a pet shop. We sometimes get interesting requests. This time, someone wants to 'rent' about 20 colorful, active birds for 3-4 days for an exhibition for the fashion week in a bit more than a month.
The birds will be living in an aviary (possibly more than one aviary - I suggested he might need more than one as he might not be able to get all colors in one cage and the colors were apparently very important).

As he wants active birds, I don't think we should go the small parrot kind of way - finches tend to have shorter periods of doing nothing. But I'm uncertain as to what species are suited for this kind of thing?
Gouldians would give him just about every color in one species - and a very pretty little bird too. But would it be too much for them to be bought, live in the pet shop for a week or two (depending on how fast we can find so many adult gouldians), then moved to an aviary for 4 days then back to the pet shop? Or could they handle it?
He also mentioned zebra finches - though not very colorful, the beak does have a nice contrasting flash of color and someone had told him they were interesting to look at. Would they stand a better chance than gouldians of handling all the moving around or is that the same?
We discussed red factor canaries as well. Being a little larger than the other two, I imagine those might do better?
I also considered a few owl finches (though not colorful, I think they look beautiful and just a couple with some more colorful species might be a nice contrast) and star finches.

Are there other colorful species that are easy to come by, that are worth considering?
And which of the above mentioned species could live together for 3 days in an aviary with no nests without issues?

I hope you can provide a little assistance so I don't mess up.

[andiok]

Stine
Honestly if you could put up an aviary full of gouldians, you got more then the rainbow colors there.You can add some european goldfinches for more intense colors and some canaries as well, yellows, whites, red factors.
On the other aviary you could do budgies. They have different colors except for red.

Birds get stressed when they move around thats for sure but if the customer if paying for the service and you have a petstore to run then you might consider doing it anyways. People take their birds in shows all the time no matter what.

[Sheather]

Budgies come in every color of the rainbow except red and are the cheapest cage bird, normally are very lively and would be unlikely to stress much.

[Stine]

Thank you. I was thinking about budgies at first as well, but as he specified that he wanted the birds to be active.. Well, I do consider budgies active birds, but it is my experience that many people sees active=flying. So if a bird is not flying, it's not active. And finches tend to fly quite a bit more..
As for the gouldians - they won't stress more than zebras, canaries and such? I might have become slightly over protective about them after loosing several babies in the shop, even though I know the adults are not as sensitive.

[Icearstorm]

Stine

Is this going to be a mixed collection? The aviary setting will likely reduce aggression, so pushy species can be kept with passive ones more safely. Many are successful keeping hookbills and finches together in these large enclosures, though this may be too risky.

From what I've seen at zoos, lorikeets are rather active. Many are comfortable perching on people's hands and drinking nectar, so guests could have a one-on-one experience with them if arranged. Unfortunately they are quite messy and more difficult to provide for.

In regards to stress, it depends on the individual; my gouldians are usually calm, while others have birds that regularly freak out. As a rule, gouldians aren't as active as other mid-sized finches. Be careful with the blue mutations; these birds tend to be weaker and are more likely to get ill.

Be careful keeping zebra finches with the others, as they can be pushy in a mixed collection. If they are transported in a seperate cage and moved immediately into an avairy they should be fine. The meeping can get a bit repetitive.

Cordon bleus are colorful, but males may be aggressive toward others with similar markings (red-cheekeds may have issues with male zebra finches and orange-cheeked waxbills). This sounds like a non-breeding avairy, so hopefully this won't be an issue.

As far as high-contrast birds go, Java finches and tricolored munias look great. The former can be pushy at times, so don't add very many of them (or make it a single-species avairy). The barring on owl finches may make them appear a bit muddled when seen from afar.

Get a few male canaries and you'll have a singing avairy. Java finches also have nice voices, but don't sing as often or vary their songs as much.

Are there any whydas in your area? The males have showy tail plumes, and make quite the impact. Golden pheasants and Victoria crowned pigeons are also pretty, but are rather large and difficult to come by, so it doesn't seem like they would be practical. Superb starlings have great color, but are also rather rare.

My main concern would be disease. Birds coming from multiple sources may have been exposed to a variety of pathogens, so either get your birds from the same source or quarantine them; doing both would be the best. Canaries, gouldians, and Javas are all prone to air sac mites, so using SCATT or Ivermectin as preventatives may be useful. Keep the store and avairy around room temperature. Provide a variety of quality foods; those with vitamin C can boost the immune system and reduce the chance of illness.

[Sheather]

I can't recommend a bird more active than parakeets in a flock setting. They will snooze every now and again, and a single budgie nervous in a cage may spend most of its time in one spot, but most of the time budgies are very on the go, more than any other species I have kept.

[lovezebs]

Stine

Although Gouldians are lovely and definitely colourful, I would not use them in this situation.

First of all they would become too stressed, and second, they would sit on the perches frozen like pretty statues and not move.

If you have some Parrot Finches, I would go with them. They are lovely and always on the move.

I would opt with Budgies OR Canaries for the second aviary.

[debbie276]

I agree with Elana about the gouldians.
How about love birds? I use to have a pair and they are a tough little bird that come in several different colors.

[Stine]

Thank you all again!
So at least two people saying gouldians are not a good idea.. Hmm. That's too bad.
I actually have two aviaries of budgies at my parent's place and two cages in my living room and I still find that my zebras and my gouldian are flying more. The budgies sit and chatter, socialize a lot, play some with their toys - but they almost only fly when going to feed or when forced off the perch by another bird.
I was considering lovebirds as well. I'm just worried about their aggression level. But if I stick to one species - Fischer's is probably most colorful - and get some different mutations to get more colors, I guess they are unlikely to bite any toes of during 3 days in an aviary. Then the only issue is activity level. And possibly noise.. I just had a look at a few youtube videos of lovebird aviaries and there was a decent amount of flying. So they do seem like a good option, assuming I can find them in at least both yellow, blue and green at a decent price..
I have never seen a whydah for sale around here no, and parrot finches are also quite uncommon. Actually the same goes for Cordon bleus. So I actually think gouldians are the best non-lovebird option of getting all colors, but if you guys genuinely don't think they would be okay with all the moving about, then they just don't fit the bill.
I just can't help but imagining maybe 4 male zebras, 4 red factor canaries, a couple of owls and then 10-15 gouldians.. Would be beautiful! Though not if they kill each other or die from stress

[Babs _Owner]

Stine

I've got about 30 gouldians in 3 5 - 1/2 foot flights. They are very active when completely relaxed, or when completely startled.

If I am walking around the room looking at this and that around their flights or I vacuum, or I have another person in the room they don't know.....they are all very "still" as Elana and Debbie mentioned.

I can imagine lots of strange people will be around them. Their instinct will probably make them little statues or it can go the OTHER way....

They also have a strong "flock instinct" and get very startled all at one time. That causes panic and we all know what bad possibilities that can have because they get quite reckless in a panic mode. My juveniles panic if I flail my hand or even sneeze or cough near their flights because I am still "new" to them. 10 panicking birds is not attractive. *chuckle*

The problem here is there is very little time for the birds to acclimate to the new circumstances.

What is the aviary made out of?

[Stine]

They haven't made the aviary yet. He was going to have a meeting with someone about it later the day I talked to him. I'll make sure to ask him. Also about how big it's going to be. And whether it'll be a problem that the birds have capacity for the level of noise lovebirds happen to have..

[lovezebs]

Stine

How about two Macaws doing acrobatics in one flight. They are magnificent looking birds and people are always drawn to them.

The second flight, could be a mixture of different mutations of Zebras, and different colours of Canaries.

You will have activity, colour and song.

I would mention to buddy to throw in a bunch of greenery to make the colours of the birds stand out.

[Stine]

Thank you for the suggestion, but we won't do macaws - we have no suitable place to keep them afterwards.
My boss has actually been trying to make me say it's OK to keep a macaw in the shop, but the fact is the largest enclosure we could possibly make would be 120 x 100 cm and where as that's much larger than the average macaw cage, it won't allow for proper flight and we can't have the bird loose in the shop.
Or we could, but we would have to clip the wings and then people could step on it, kick it (you wouldn't believe some of the kids that come in that shop - I haven't seen any actually kicking or hitting the animals but I have certainly raised my voice at them several times, letting go of guinea pigs 2 ft above the cage, waving their hands around bird cages to make the birds move and such) or the bird could bite the customers.

But zebras and canaries would be okay together in an aviary for a few days? And if I find a few parrot finches or something colorful like that, could they be in the same aviary?

[lovezebs]

Stine

Oh I believe the problems with the rotten... I mean darling children.

I was just at Petland yesterday, and had to tell a kid to stop squishing the bunnies. I mean he was literally grabbing them and squeezing them until the stuffing just about come out of the poor things.

I looked at him with a big frown and said DON'T DO THAT!!! Well he left the bunnies and went on to annoy the birds, at which point I got one of the workers and pointed him out to her, and she told him off.

Another day at my favorite Pet Shop, I had to tell another little brat not to bang on the glass of the bird enclosures. He was giving some poor birds absolute fits.

What is wrong with these darn kids and their parents anyway, who allow them to roam free and do whatever the heck they want?

Anyway, back to the birds.

Canaries and Zebras, should be ok for a few days. The Canaries, can look after themselves and will let the Zebras know if they're getting too annoying.

What other species do you have in your store?

[Babs _Owner]

Stine

Oh boy! A bunch of male canaries outsinging each other would be a lovely sound in a big area!