New England Breeders? Waxbills and Owl Finches?

[neojinnx]

This is really great info guys, I can't thank you enough! As a novice, I've come across so many lists and bullet points of finch care that it's nice to hear (and understand) the specifics and reasoning behind some of it.

Stuart- I love the bird room, I can't wait to see the final result!

w.l.- Do you have any experience in having birds shipped? I'm curious how it's done in a way that the birds get adequate food and water without it spilling (and without putting too much stress on them).

[w.l.]

The longest I have shipped birds was one day's journey.
Put some cotton wool in the water cup to keep the water in.
Both water and seed cups were of course fixed to the side of the cage.
Anyway, as a buyer this wouldn't be your worry but the seller's.
I personally hate to buy birds unseen by getting them shipped, but a pair of captive-bred Timor Zebras from a breeder should be a pretty safe purchase even unseen. They are all the same size, color, and generally in the same good condition.

[Stuart whiting]

Hi neojinnx have a look at me waxbill birdroom thread, got some update going onto me thread tonight

[Sally]

neojinnx As long as the Lavenders are in an indoor aviary, they should be fine. I had a pair, lost one of them, and the remaining Lavender is in a mixed cage with a Purple Grenadier, a Gray Singing finch, and a Strawberry (all male), and amazingly enough, they all get along fine. My house is kept at 78 day, 75 night in summer, and 70 day, 65 night in winter. Just make sure the aviary is away from drafts (not near an outside door, for example).

As for the Parrot finches in an aviary, they are very active little birds, they need lots of exercise to keep from getting fat, and they do sometimes get feisty with other birds when they are breeding.

As for the Timor Zebra finch, I've included a link to Roy Beckham's article on this species. It sounds like they are rare in U.S. aviculture, if present at all.

http://www.efinch.com/species/timor.htm

[w.l.]

The ower of this website may also still have Timors or know people who do:

http://www.zebrafinch.com

At least he says so on his page dedicated to them:

http://www.zebrafinch.com/TimorZebra/TimorZebra.html

You might also ask here:

http://www.zebrafinch-society.org/contact.htm

And of course here in my city wild-caughts cost only about $4 each on the market, but unless you are planning an exotic overseas holiday and buy them yourself, this is not much help to you - no one ships to the US from here.

[neojinnx]

Thanks again, everyone! You've given some fantastic insight!

I'm happy to say that we made the trip up to New Hampshire and bought our first finches- a pair of owl finches and a pair of lavender waxbills.

I was very surprised to see how quickly they seemed to settle in. The Lavenders were a little shell-shocked the next morning (we picked them up Friday afternoon) but after eating, drinking, and taking several baths together (always together) they became very lively and really seemed to enjoy zipping through their new enclosure.

The owl finches were completely unfazed. I'm amazed at how active and curious they are. Whenever I put something into the enclosure, they immediately investigate. The male especially seems to have little to no reservations around humans. They spent most of the first day flying through the swings at high speed as if they were Blue Angels pilots.

They (the owls) seem to have very quickly switched gears from investigative mode into breeding mode. Saturday afternoon/evening they seemed to really only be interested in each other (mating several times) and have begun building a nest. The aviary my husband built is on locking casters so we rolled it over to the large picture window for several hours on Sunday. They spent most of that time watching the wild birds and we got to listen to the male owl finch 'meow' each time he heard the blue jay. Once we moved the enclosure back to its place, he again began to work on the nest with single-minded determination.

Now, I did a lot of research before getting finches. I really did. But very little of that research had anything to do with breeding because it wasn't something I was planning on pursuing. Of course, now I'm kicking myself for my lack of foresight and breeding seems inevitable. I've started reading up on this but if you have any tips or recommendations, I'll gladly take anything I can get!

Here are a couple pictures I was able to get, albeit not very clear ones (holy mackerel, birds are hard to photograph!).

I have to say, I'm kicking myself for not doing this years ago. I can't get over how calming it is to watch them and listen to their quiet chatter.

Cheers!
-Nikki

[Barbara]

Hello glad you have your finches and there settling in nicely,I also bought finches from NH red cheeked, gold breast,and owls they must be geting pretty low on finches now so maybe they will be geting more soon I know they had quite a few gouldian's but they were very expensive.That is about the only place I have found around that sells quite a few different birds,and they have lots of good supplies especially millet (not the small ones you find at other pet stores

[Stuart whiting]

neojinnx nice one Nikki, pleased for you that yer liking and enjoying yer new finches,

many of us could all write various methods of breeding finches but basically a lot of birds would be going into a moult about now , not to sure about the states and Canada etc but most birds are in the moult about now here in England,

With this in mind it probably wouldn't be wise in breeding during this time,

Quite a few people do decide to breed their birds during the winter time but you'd be advised to supply sufficient heating,

I always breed on what is regarded as a natural breeding season commencing in spring when the days naturally turn warmer and the length of day light extends

When it comes to breeding I'd supply various nesting sites IE boxes and baskets and nest felts etc and cover them in an anti mite powder,

Incidentally I actually soak my next boxes about 1 month before soaking em in creosote as this eradicates mite

You can't actually buy creosote now as its now been replaced with a substitute but this new stuff is no good, if you can get it use creosote.

A quality seed diet with some soak seed and some propiorty egg food made up with some added grated / liquidised veg IE Carrot and broccoli and moistened with liquid honey will suffice, you can add some calcium supplements into the egg food aswell as supplying fine oyster shell, egg shell and grated cuttle fish, this can be added to the dry seed mix or egg food.

If yer attempting to try and breed yer lavender waxbills you certainly need to supply ample live food, this is normally started to be introduced about 1 month or so before the birds are given nest sites and material etc and then increase the amount if live food as soon as any youngsters hatch,

At this stage all of the youngsters will need as much protein as they can receive hence the amount of live food,

Mini meal worms, preferably the small white skinned worms are best aswell as white pinkies ( small maggots ) these can be frozen or live although I'd prefer live,

Fruit fly and any small aphids can also be an advantage,

Lastly you can cage breed as this is possible in large cages but you'd have far better results if breeding with 1-2 pairs per avairy,

Word of warning though if breeding and have more than 1 pair of birds in the same avairy you must definitely make sure that these are safe to mix together and are compatible

Incidentally if you intend on keeping yer lavenders and the bicheno ( owl ) finches together in the same avairy they should be fine together in general but be alert that you may experience the owl finches becoming a little boystress when it comes to breeding.

[Shannylee]

neojinnx, beautiful aviary!! Very nicely done

I went to a bird mart on Sunday and fell in love with the lavenders! Owls and lavenders are on my wish list. I just need to thin out my canary flock before I get any more birds. LOL!

[w.l.]

I had already told you that Lavenders may not be good to mix with other small birds you plan to breed. They may evict the others from their nests if they take fancy to it, or steal hatchlings to decorate their own nest with! I personslly know someone who mixed Lavenders with owls and ended up having to separate them as the Lavenders wouldn't leave the owls' nest alone.
You may get lucky, but if breeding is important, it is best to keep each species in a separate cage unless they are all totally passive and the aviary is really big - think at least one square meter floor area per pair of birds.

[lem2bert]

Nikki, so glad you were able to make the trip to the bird supply of NH. You're new little owl finches and Lavender waxbills are beautiful !!! It sure looks like they are enjoying their beautiful new home !! Congratulations, keep us informed on any babies !!!

[Shannylee]

w.l., thanks for the reminder! My aviary is pretty big but, as you know, I am now very careful to not invite drama. LOL! I'm learning that back-up (separation) aviaries/flight cages add up $$ quickly. Bronze wing mannikins + pretty much anything else in an aviary = another cage! Ugh!!! Feisty little guys!

Looks like Nikki has a pretty good sized aviary. Hopefully her kids will all live peacefully together.

[w.l.]

Yups, those mannikins were suspect from the beginning... And since you have more than one pair, you may well need more than one separate cage to house them eventually!
As for Lavenders, I can only repeat that merely keeping them in a mixed aviary is fine.
If breeding is planned there, the Lavenders are better removed though.

[w.l.]

And while it almost surely won't help anyone else much in practice, to keep them in people's mind I am posting a pic of one of two cagefuls of little Timor Zebras seen on the market the other day. All wild-caught, but several of them still in young colour, perfect to establish as future breeding-stock:

FB_IMG_1471164065708.jpg

[Shannylee]

w.l. , I need the separation cages to separate the mannikins from each other. Tiny buggars with killer attitudes. They couldn't care less about the other birds but create havoc in the aviary with the 2 males chasing each other. They claim all of the nests too. The gouldians have surprised me with their less-than-passive response to each other and the other birds (canaries, mannikins, society & spice finches). They are not push-overs and stand their ground!

Are most of the birds available to you wild-caught, w.l. ? I'm not sure what we have here in the US but would assume that the majority are bred. Just wondering if some of that wild nature is lost in the domestic breeding.