My First finches arriving

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bangkokbrian47
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My First finches arriving

Post by bangkokbrian47 » Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:51 pm

My first finches (6 number) will be arriving in a couple of days after at least a 12 hour road journey. They will also be arriving after dark (8pm here in Thailand).

Their new permanent home will be a 15ft x 7ft x 7ft semi-covered, outdoor planted aviary but what do I do with them when they first arrive?

1. Check that they are ok and still have food and water available but leave them in the travel box/cage?

2. Move them to a larger cage with same food and water and leave some sort of light on for the first night?

3. Move them to their new permanent home but leave some sort of light on for them to find food and water and roosting places?

Your advice and help would be much appreciated.

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by CathyCraftz » Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:11 am

You should move them to a larger cage and provide water and finch seed for them. As long as the surroundings is dark with nothing that they can be spooked by eg. other animals, then they should be fine. They should also be checked to see if they have any diseases.
It would be best to let them get used to the cage before adding them to the aviary.
Also, add them to the aviary in the morning, so they have enough time to find a place to roost for the night.
What finches are you getting?
Have a nice day!
Sincerely, Cathy

~obsessed with zebra finches~

bangkokbrian47
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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by bangkokbrian47 » Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:39 am

Thanks Cathy,

I have a 36"x 18"x 18" wire cage that I can prepare and be ready for when they arrive. It should be large enough for all 6 finches until they are ready for the aviary,yes?
As there are no birds at all in my new aviary how long would you suggest they stay in the cage before letting them open up their wings in the aviary? I am not getting any more birds for a while so they could quarantine in the aviary and if I do get tempted early to get more birds I could quarantine them in the vacated cage.

BTW I'm getting 3 prs of Gouldians - 1pr RHPBGB, 1pr BHPBGB and 1pr RHWBYB. I hope I've got those abbreviations right.

Can't wait for them to arrive as I finished my aviary about 4 weeks ago and have been waiting for the breeder to announce that my birds were finished moulting and ready for shipping

Again thanks for your swift reply.

Brian

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by Icearstorm » Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:37 am

bangkokbrian47

If the birds aren't used to large spaces, keeping some food and water in the travel cage as well as putting some directly in the aviary could work well. Some birds have difficulty finding food at first, but they should know there's food in the travel cage, so you can tie open the door to let them fly in and out of it. If you go this route, sit the cage down, open the door, and let the birds fly out of the cage and into the aviary at their own pace. Then just leave the cage where it is, and also add food and water in the outdoor aviary. Once they start eating and drinking from the dishes in the aviary, you can remove the travel cage.

Aviary quarantine sounds fine since they all came from the same source. They'll like the extra space.

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by isobea » Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:37 pm

bangkokbrian47 - Do you know if the breeder raised them in an aviary or in cages? Some birds, raised in cages, can fly okay but not great when you first put them into your aviary. In that case perches at different distances and heights would help them. I bought a canary not too long ago that was bred in a cage and it took him a few days to become a strong flier. How big is your aviary?
Good luck! It sounds like you bought beautiful birds.
Iso

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by bangkokbrian47 » Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:24 am

Well, my finches finally arrived after, not 12 hours on a bus but 26 hours. Heavy rain, strong winds and fallen trees had plagued the journey and completely screwed the bus timetable. This meant that when I collected them from the bus terminal it was 10.00am and daylight and not 8.00pm and dark.

They were in remarkable condition and very active so I decided to release them for quarantine in the main aviary (these are my first birds).

Well within 30 minutes they had found the feed stations and were enjoying the freedom of 5 mtrs of horizontal flight zipping back and forth at great speed.

The breeder I got them from in Thailand only breeds Gouldians and was recommended to me by a Swiss guy and whilst there were some language difficulties I was very impressed how the whole buying and shipping process was conducted. As she lives about 820 km from me and domestic air carriers refuse to allow any animals to be transported (except dogs for the blind) road transport was the only method to get my birds. I was so happy when they finally arrived :D :D .

I'll get the camera out in a couple of days and post some piccies of my first finches. I feel like a kid at Christmas but I'm a very juvenile 72 (second childhood!!) \:D/ .

Thanks for all the help you've given me so far and no doubt I'll be relying on your advice in the future.
Cheers.

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by isobea » Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:35 am

bangkokbrian47 - First and foremost: Congratulations on your first gouldians! I can see how you would be ecstatic over seeing them doing so well shortly after arriving. That was quite a journey they endured. Good luck with them. They are wonderful birds and, in your climate, shouldn't be hard to breed.
Iso

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by Icearstorm » Thu Apr 25, 2019 2:39 pm

bangkokbrian47

Glad they're doing well!

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by bangkokbrian47 » Thu Apr 25, 2019 11:10 pm

Thanks for your kind comments.

As promised here are my new feathered friends.
My First Finches-1.jpg
My First Finches-1.jpg (115.31 KiB) Viewed 1867 times
Bonnie & Clyde, Sonny & Cher and George & Mildred. (Older UK members might remember the last one!)

I thought I would have great difficulty in capturing all of them together but as I entered the aviary they all lined up on the one perch for their photo. (Wish kids were as co-operative)

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by wildbird » Fri Apr 26, 2019 11:47 pm

Very pretty! And lucky to be a nice aviary.

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Re: My First finches arriving

Post by Phoenix811 » Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:54 pm

they are beautiful! congratulations and best of luck to u! :)

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