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Hello there!
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 2:44 pm
by jennifaerie
Hi! My name is Jennifer, and I am new to the board. I'm from New Hampshire, and I have two (well, apparently six!) zebra finches.
I had zebra finches decades ago, but the information was few and far in between compared to what you can find now.
My husband and I are animal lovers, and over the years, we've amassed a zoo. Now, we have two dogs, four cats (just lost one last Friday, and it's hard not to type "five"), a leopard gecko, and two fish.
We recently decided after losing our husky (very strong prey drive for birds), it was safe to finally bring birds into the house (you'd be surprised at how docile our cats are, though they are not allowed to be in the same room with the bird cage unsupervised), and enter Anna and Bates (Downton Abbey theme), our zebra finches.
My experience with my previous finches did not prepare us for a clutch so quickly, and we now have four nestlings! We thought we had three but discovered a fourth yesterday.
I've scoured this forum for information for days now, and I am grateful for everything I've read so far. I just wanted to introduce myself and share some pictures of everyone (I apologize how they post; I'm writing this on a computer and a phone in tandem, so I wasn't able to preview this on a computer).
We've been eager to take pictures of the babies, but we're trying to give them their space. It's been tough getting the ones I actually have, but hopefully within the next two weeks, we'll have more.
Thank you for letting me visit!
Jennifer
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:12 pm
by finchmix22
Welcome to the forum! Your babies are adorable! Congratulations.
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:14 pm
by debbie276
Welcome to the forum Jennifer!
Congratulations on the chicks and best of luck

Re: Hello there!
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:29 pm
by lovezebs
jennifaerie
Hi Jen, and welcome to the Forum.
You sound like a person after my own heart..... The minute I hear 'living in a Zoo' it just warms my heart.
I think you'll fit right in, with all the rest of us bird/pet nuts

.
There are lot's if members here that either have Zebras, or have had Zebras, so we are very familiar with how two Zebras, can become five, ten, twenty, a whole tribe......
A quick tit bit of advice, if you don't want the aforementioned tribe, remove nest right after these little darlings fledge.
Hoping to hear more from you, and to see more pictures of your bird parents, and of course more baby pictures as well.
All the best

Re: Hello there!
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:29 pm
by jennifaerie
Thank you very much, Deborah and Debbie! It's nice to share pictures of the birds and not have to explain what they're looking at is bird poop ("What's that white stuff at the bottom?").
We had to do a little redecorating yesterday, as we had initially had the bamboo house and a coconut. Anna and Bates had absolutely no interest in the inside of the coconut-- until yesterday. They started to pull materials in, and I said, Uh oh! Took the coconut out and put in silk plants we were planning to put in later instead. They're really enjoying them, and it looks like Animal Kingdom in there!
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2015 3:33 pm
by jennifaerie
Elana, thank you very much for the welcome! We always joke we should charge admission to help pay for them!
We definitely are planning on removing the nest. We bought multiple (on top of the coconut) early on, but realized we were asking for trouble (or cuteness). So we're going to move onto more silk plants once they leave the nest.
We're quite adept at taking pictures of our dogs and cats (one of our dogs, we joke his nickname is "redacted" because he's mostly black so we used to drown out his features in all of his pictures). It feels like you need a macro and sports setting on to take pictures of the birds, so I've been trying once every day to get something of anyone. Most of the parents' turn out blurry and most of the babies turn out... gray!

I will be sure to post more when I get something that's worth looking at.
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 2:34 pm
by delray
jennifaerie Welcome to the FINCHforum! There is lots of great reading at the Finch Information Center located at the top left of your screen. There you can read all about your finches! Your zebras look great!
I am the Social Media Manager here, and we have a Facebook and Instagram page. We would appreciate your like if you can! Have a great day and enjoy the forum.
Brian
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:05 pm
by Sally
Welcome to the forum! Love the photos!
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:34 pm
by Arama
Welcome to the forum. There's a massive amount of information on here that is so useful and well don't get me started on the wonderful people.
I also have zebra finches and love them to pieces, there's 8 in total. We also have two lovely female cats that haven't caused an issue since building bird shelves. They do enjoy watching the birds so very much from their cat tree.
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:59 pm
by jamezyboo21
Welcome to the Forum!!
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 6:42 pm
by Babs _Owner
jennifaerie
Its amazing how many of those babies can squeeze in that little nest!
Welcome to the forum and nice pictures of the babies piled in the clown-car!!

Re: Hello there!
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 9:40 am
by jennifaerie
Thank you again to everyone for all the welcomes! We've had quite a bit of activity since I last wrote (hence my silence)!
We discovered we have FIVE babies! (Babs, you ain't kiddin'!) I have no idea how the fifth one managed to function under all the others, but they all seem quite healthy.
Also, we had our first leave the nest yesterday! I had a hard time leaving because I wanted to watch all day. He (I'm so sure "he" is going to end up being a "she" since I keep calling him "he") managed to get into the food dish, so he's flown a little. He mostly just chased mom and dad around and peeped a lot.
I tried to take a lot of pictures, but I mostly just got video because it comes out better. Here are a couple pictures I do have.
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2015 2:34 pm
by slwatson
jennifaerie
Welcome to the forum! Your zebra babies are very cute! I have a bit of a zoo at my house as well

This is a great place to get information and there's some wonderful people here!
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 10:39 am
by erine
So stinkin' cute. Post lots of pics. We love them.
Re: Hello there!
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 2:32 pm
by mohum
Hi, I also have five babies just fledged. They are so cute but I can't accommodate any more so will have to keep a careful eye on them. They are returning to the nest at night so I have a dilemma of when to remove it but it will have to be soon.