Newb Questions

[Mikanis]

Hello all!

I was gifted three society/Bengalese finches for Mother's Day. Apparently, I have two cocks and a hen, one is a male with the fawn? Coloration? I believe, after doing some reading. Happy fat little birds.

I have them in a starter cage and i gave them a nesting box and lo and behold, I had a clutch of six and all have hatched successfully! Which is great and terrifying.

I am 90% sure my two pied are the love birds, and my fawn Cinna is the odd man out. They've been getting along well and Cinna is participating in the parenting. Can i expect that good behavior to continue?

Also, how faithful ARE finches? Is this a bond-for-life pair now, or is it seasonal. If so, I'd like to give my lady one more clutch with the other male on the off-chance i get some color variations.

I'm worried about separating the pair until I've done more reading, because I can always let one of the chicks mature and give him a shot at a mate that way, but that again comes down to how hard it is separate the pair and if they take a shine to each other.

I plan to keep my starter cage as a breeding/hospital cage and build a wide cabinet style aviary for the flight cage. I'll separate it down the middle into male/female to prevent unauthorized viable clutches. I would really some recommendations on wire screening, but I see there's some topics and I intend to read up on it, too, so if it's covered somewhere, I'll happily explore.

Thanks for having me! I'll try to get some pictures up soon. the bebs are just getting their feathers now.

[Fraza]

You can seperate but would be a lot easier to give one of ur offspring to the Cinna one as they do stay bonded the originally pair and because they have bred and laid a clutch there bond will be better ,
I’ve bred a lot of society’s/bengalease and have a few and they are the best finch for people to have they never cause trouble they will always get along

Goodluck and upload some pics

Also the fact that the pair hatched a Total of 6 shows they are healthy and have good fertility meaning they are a good pair

[wilkifam]

Society finches will stay bonded, but will still make with anyone and everyone available. If they are all together, you can't be positive who the REAL parents of the babies are (except the hen of course).

[Sally]

Society finches will stay bonded, but will still make with anyone and everyone available. If they are all together, you can't be positive who the REAL parents of the babies are (except the hen of course).

Agreed. There IS the possibility that one or more of the babies was fathered by the odd man out.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, and if you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier for members to help you. Many members have used the 1/2" square plastic wire that is readily available at big box hardware stores, but only for indoor cages/aviaries. Rodents can chew through plastic wire that is used outside.

[Mikanis]

Oh these are inside-aviary darlings to be sure, they are my joy.

The beau and I have priced 1/2 hardware cloth and some other materials, and he's the crafty type, so I think I'll have some new pictures to put up soon.

I can tell at least two of my chicks have Cinna's coloration!! So maybe he got a shot after all. I don't judge.

One of them is a beautiful mousey-brown, I hope they keep that shade through the first moulting. I've settled on Nutmeg, for that one.

Is there anyone out there who could share some hind-sight tips on aviary building? Any features you'd wished for after the fact that you would add if building a second?

I added a second nest box, to give everyone a retreat from the very demanding babies, and they're taking turns sitting, feeding, and napping.

I've given myself until the chicks begin to explore to finish the second aviary, and I've put down a soft t-shirt under the occupied nest to cushion any falls. I've also bought them a swing and rearranged one of the perches to reach the bottom of the cage so the babies can work their up if they need to.

I'm enchanted, I love my birds. Pictures soon, I promise.

I've been reading up on the variety of finches available, and I'm in the Seattle area. I've decided I'll grow my clutch to adulthood, restrict breeding until I have better sense of of the ins-and-outs, and then maybe I'll experiment with other breeds.

They like parsley! And other sprouts, I've been adding that and some wild bird feed to the LaFeber's blend to keep them interested. They get really excited about new things in the dish.

[CathyCraftz]

Buy another finch to be the friend of any odd finch out. They will start picking on the lone finch soon enough.

[Fraza]

CathyCraftz no society’s fiches don’t actually do this they don’t pic on the odd one out you can have numbers of odd society’s and they never start trouble

[Fraza]

Mikanis I wish I would have made a slot to hang my phone in so I could do recording sounds stupid but I was thinking it the other day it’s so hard to get it to stand and record a certain way and it would be good if I had a slot at the top

Also i wish I made a piece that could come on and off the op of the aviary to create shade to keep extra warmth in the i winter

Also breeding cages built into the indoor part of aviary so that if I get an ILL or sick bird it can have a rest in there alone

Have a solar panel water fountain

[Shaivya]

I had 4 finches, 2 of them died a few weeks back. I got 2 more and added them to the existing ones. Yesterday they all seemed pretty happy and were getting along well.Today one of the older finches is puffed up and sleeping a lot! Is she ok
? Is this a behavioral thing?

[Icearstorm]

Shaivya

That sounds like a general sign of illness. Do you have a heat lamp? If so, place it over one side of the cage so that side is warm (around 90-100°F) and the other side remains room temperature. I did this when I had an ill gouldian, and she recovered within a few days.

The next time you get birds, it's a good idea to keep them in quarantine for a couple of weeks so you can make sure they are healthy before you put them in with your older birds.

[Shaivya]

Thank you for the reply. I don't have a heat lamp yet. I am in India. Would keeping them in direct sunlight help? It's been a bit rainy lately and I do keep them out in natural light (it's humid hot with rainy season here) but there hasn't been any proper sunlight since last few days
Today morning it was sunny for a while and I kept them in it. She became active for a while, lost some of her puffiness but after a while again went back to sleep
I have been really worried thinking all kind of sickness with her but the local shop I brought them from, its also suggesting me for the sunlight thing only and that it's nothing serious
I am new with birds so would appreciate folks with prior experience to guide me here

[Icearstorm]

Shaivya

A bit of sunlight might help, although I'd recommend covering part of the cage so they have the option to go in the shade if they want.

[Shaivya]

so I was just browsing through some old posts in the group and this post by someone in 2015 exactly sounds like this white finch of mine I am concerned about. Copy pasting the section I am referring to. any help? Only difference from this post is my finch is a female

Regarding his behavior, he has really active periods where he zooms around the cage, doing loops by flying to the top perch, launching himself off onto his swing and swinging vigorously until he almost falls off, bailing off and grabbing the side of the cage, back onto a lower perch and then letting himself drop to the floor. He then pops up onto the feeder, has some food and starts again.

He tends to do this when people enter the room – if you sneak into the room after being gone a few minutes you’ll find him with his feathers puffed out and snuggling up to Scout. Sometimes I sit in the room reading and not paying attention to the cage, and he’ll eventually stop his loop of the cage and go to sleep next to other finches, but he is very fluffy when he is still. Others feathers only puff out when they preen or are cold. Others are a lot more streamlined generally, and activity level is completely different – they will flit from perch to perch, but Rambo is completely manic.

…Should I be worried?

Update from me- my finch sleep pattern is also completely different from others. She sleeps more than others, but she is also manic kind active from time to time so it confuses me

Oh and the sunlight helped. I noticed these behavior things after that only

[Icearstorm]

Shaivya

I had a gouldian finch that would occasionally fly around erratically, and he never had any health issues. He had a normal sleep pattern, though. Maybe you just have a slightly neurotic bird?

I'm not sure what to suggest, aside from keeping an eye on her to make sure nothing gets worse.