Baking for my newly adopted kids.

[SandyinLargoFL]

DH and I just adopted a pair of Society and a darling set of Zebra finches. Our prior experience was with parrots, and while the cleanliness habits I used there will be fine, I'm not sure about the feeding. I used to bake cornbread with an extra egg, baby's juice with yogurt and banana, wheat germ, raisins, and crushed, (cleaned) eggshell. Each pair was given a small piece when I got home from work. Are the finches going to like this? I raise my own parsley and basil with no pesticides, can I given this to them?

Finally, we live in FL and they currently reside on the screen porch. How long should we give them to get adjusted before we seperate the pairs into new and larger cages? They were given to me in an 36" x 17.5" cage which we know is NOT big enough. We just don't want to overstress them.

Thanks,
Sandy

[Sally]

That baked cornbread should be fine, though you may find that finches don't eat fruit as much as some of the parrots do. You can always add even more eggs to increase the protein too. Many people add various chopped veggies to their egg bread. Here is an article about safe and unsafe foods. Basil should be fine, parsley should be fed in moderation.

http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/safe_toxi ... _foods.php

Since you don't have other birds right now, you really don't need to quarantine, so if you want to separate them into other cages, one pair to a cage, that would be OK to do now. Since they are new, you will want to watch them for any signs of illness, such as change in droppings.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at the Finch Information Center, linked at left, where you can learn about proper nutrition and housing for finches.

[finchmix22]

Welcome to the forum!

[Hilary]

Neither species has ever been a picky eater in my experience - sounds like a treat they'll love!