FINCHforum

I am so excited!! My son and I drove down to Rhode Island on Sat. to go to the Northeast Bird Group Bird Fair. I had already put a deposit on a normal male Bourke, so we picked him up. Then while looking around, I saw a vendor that had a couple pairs of Green Twinspots! That vendor also had a pair of Crimson Seedcrackers, which both my son and I wanted sooo badly. Not enough $$$ on hand for those, but I was able to get a pair of the Green Twinspots. I think they are sooo beautiful! They are really cute and settling in nicely. The male has a really interesting little song! Here's a few pics in their little transport cage.

Christine

Congrats beautiful finches

I love those birds. They have the sweetest dispositions. I use to have some and they bred for me one time. The next clutch I lost the hen to eggbinding. That was years ago. I may just have to try them again. They do have a sweet song too. Congrats on such a unique pair

They are very pretty Congrats

Stunning! Enjoy them they look real sweet.

Very cute birds! They look very interested in looking at you too!

Darling birds! I too am a fan of these guys - the male's song is my favorite - sounds like a compilation of a child's flute whistle, a tea kettle and four or five other birds mixed in to boot.

I am interested in trying to raise the green backed twinspots as well. What sort of nest did they raise in for you? Did you supply live food? Were they in a mixed aviary or by themselves in a breeding cage? Are they aggressive toward other birds of different species when breeding? Please share any thoughts or tips that might help. Thanks

Great, healthy looking birds. Please keep us posted on their progress. I have never heard their song, I'll have to google it.

debbyloo wrote:Darling birds!

I am interested in trying to raise the green backed twinspots as well. What sort of nest did they raise in for you? Did you supply live food? Were they in a mixed aviary or by themselves in a breeding cage? Are they aggressive toward other birds of different species when breeding? Please share any thoughts or tips that might help. Thanks

Debbie,
I had a large room full of canaries each paired and caged bred. I started gathering finch pairs to see which I liked... pretty much waxbills from cordons, strawberries, stars, orange checks, greenspots, goldbreast, lavendars, etc. I had each pair in a 30" x 18" x 36" tall flight cage. I furnished each cage with nest of the tube shaped wicker, regular covered wicker, small ABBA plastic box, and an open wicker canary. If memory serves me correctly (10 years ago) they chose the regular covered wicker. I did raise wingless fruitflies and offered them, also dried fish bloodworms (dried fishfood is not a new idea btw ) I tried raising mealworms but was not too successful so they only had them occaisionally. I did feed every finch the eggfood that I made for the canaries, cede brand with fresh boiled eggs. If I recall they fed this to the chicks also.
The weather had turned cool and I believe that is why I lost her to eggbinding. They were housed at my dog boarding kennel, indoor but not heated. I could not find a replacement hen and the 3 chicks were all males. I kept them for a while in the lobby so my dog grooming customers could enjoy them. Eventually sold them to gentleman that had an outdoor aviary on the condition that if he found hens that he would sell me a pair back. Never got any and I moved on to breeding the australian gouldians, shafts, parrot finches.
I may have had just dumb beginners luck, I had bought the pair from a pet store and knew nothing about the breeder/wild caught exporter or the age of the birds.
I sure hope you have success with yours..... they are truly one of my favorite finches

How was the RI fair all together?
Was it a pretty good turn out of vendors?
Congrats on the new birds Someone was just asking about the Crimson Seedcrackers on the NFSS forum the other day..

Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments! And Candace, for all the info!

nixity wrote:How was the RI fair all together?
Was it a pretty good turn out of vendors?
Congrats on the new birds Someone was just asking about the Crimson Seedcrackers on the NFSS forum the other day..

There were quite a few vendors (maybe 20ish?), and a lot of them had finches! I think this was the third annual, though the first one that I've been to. They had an auction of birds and various educational talks, as well as the cockatiel and parrot shows. (Didn't get to see any of that because my son got overwhelmed with all the people, so we left fairly early. ) Those Crimson Seedcrackers are absolutely gorgeous! The male is a beautiful red, and they both have these big, dark eyes!

Christine

I also raise the Green Twinspots & love them. We cage breed and use the plastic finch boxes for them. they like mealworms but we have had some raise babies on a diet of pellets & seed. I did get a couple of pairs of the Crimson Seedcrackers & they are really something.. Have not found a lot of information on them so far & have offered them a bunch of different foods but they only seem interested in the finch mix?

Christine you are the same Christine who bought the birds from me in NH last year, correct? (Sorry if I'm wrong.. )

How are they?

nixity wrote:Christine you are the same Christine who bought the birds from me in NH last year, correct? (Sorry if I'm wrong.. )

How are they?

It must be someone else, Tiffany. I haven't been to the bird show in NH. Wanted to go this year but it got cancelled, as you probably know.......

Christine

Thanks so much for sharing breeding tips on this species. They are rather uncommon around here anyway, and such delightful little birds.