Video (finally) of our chatty boys

[afinch]

I finally got around to making a short video of the two baby ZFs rescues that I've been handfeeding since day 1. They were singing nonstop today, so I couldn't resist taping them (albeit not very good yet, as you will see). They're now 6 weeks old and completely weaned, with the exception of occasional comfort feedings. In fact, they won't stop eating as long as there's food in the bins lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Z9CWsYFJ8

Hope you like it!

Spot is the one with the greyer cheeks. Messi is the one with exactly 4 fawn feathers on his neck and back. How strange is that? Exactly 4. 3 on the back of his neck, and one on the base of his left wing.

[Sam007]

They are adorable!

[MiaCarter]

Aw, what sweetie pies!
They clearly enjoy the cuddles and love!

You've definitely got boys! Squeepers (and now Pippin) did the exact same chirpy mumbling! It's so darn cute!

What a curious beak color! Is that their starting color or has it changed to that?
My guys go straight from black to orange. But yours look like a brownish color. It's very cute!

[afinch]

Yep this is the second time I get babies from this line, and their beaks go from black to horn/pink, and then finally orange or red. Still not a 100% sure what they are or what their parents were. So far I think there's grey/fawn cheek in there, and maybe some florida fancy too. Waiting on these two to color up a bit to make a better guess.

[afinch]

One thing I find curious about these two is their uncharacteristic intelligence. Or maybe I've just never properly interacted with finches in the same capacity before. The fact that these two think of me as their parent may have caused them to be more attentive to what I do. For example, they take great interest in my iphone. As soon as my screen lights up, they rush to it and start pecking at the screen around my fingers. Perhaps they think this is some sort of typical finch behavior that they need to pick up by immitation. I mean, if I'm spending so much time on it, then it must be, right? And I know it's not a random behavior, because I keep trying to put them down so I can type, but they keep flying back and pecking at the letters and icons. They also take a lot of interest in what's happening on my laptop screen. As soon as I open it and start typing, they fly over and start pecking the screen and following the cursor around. Here you can see them taking interest in your signature lol. They're ridiculously fun to have around. I really used to think only parrots would have such idiosyncrasies. I used to think of finches more like automatons. But these two are really changing that.

[Sam007]

Seems like they love MiaCarter's signature finch.

[afinch]

Seems like they love MiaCarter's signature finch.

I guess so lol

[delray]

Mia is Gonna get a kick out of it when she sees it! that's so great that they are tame, I hope to do that when I get older because it seems so cool!

[afinch]

Mia is Gonna get a kick out of it when she sees it! that's so great that they are tame, I hope to do that when I get older because it seems so cool!

The end result really is very cool. All I can say about the process though is that it's incredibly HARD and extremely time consuming. I swear, by the time they were one month old, I was walking around like a zombie LOL. My schedule was just not conducive of hand raising baby finches, and I still can't believe they pulled through (thankful for people here for their help and encouragement). Every day I kept thinking, OK, today is the day something is going to go horribly wrong, and I was constantly stressing about their well being until they started eating on their own. When they're young they're so tiny and delicate, it's a miracle when something does not go wrong...

I have to admit though, that once you experience it, it's extremely addictive. I would love to hand raise more tame birds, but I would have to really plan it better next (in fact, plan it at all, since this time was completely forced by the fact that the parents didn't feed, and they weren't supposed to breed to begin with). Though for now, I feel like I need a longggggg break from it lol.

[afinch]

By the way MiaCarter, I'm still waiting to see a photo of your Squeepers!

[MiaCarter]

That's HILARIOUS!
Love it!
I'm so putting that up that photo on my blog if that's okay with you? (With them checking out my banner with my Molly Sue graphic?)

My guys also love the computer. I'll be in the bird room on the laptop during free fly and they're always landing on the edge of the monitor or on the keyboard, occasionally pecking and tilting their heads!
Molly Sue loves the mouse movement and Squeepers goes crazy watching bird videos. He just sits there in a trance, doing his strange little chattering thing. (It's this constant mumbling. The oddest thing, really!)

And ah yes, my Squeepers!
Here's an older photo, when he was about your guys' age:


And now, at 4 months and 2 days old:


And here's a funny photo of Molly Sue the photo bomber!
He loves the sound of the shutter click that my iPhone makes. So he landed about an inch away and kept blocking the view and messing up the auto-focus! But I got this sweet photo in the process!


Your little ones will totally stay tame as long as you keep handling them.
I recommend finding a food they love (cucumber is my secret weapon!) and offer it to them. (In the beginning, you should be their only source of the food item you pick) That will keep them wanting to go to you.
It's hard because finches are pre-programmed to fear humans, and that fear can override the enjoyment they get from attention and cuddles. But the food AND the cuddles/attention make it easier to overcome any instinctive fear.
Just make sure you don't skip a day handling them. They backslide super easily if you skip a day in the first 6 months or so.

[afinch]

Squeepers is so freakin cute!!!!
Yes of course you can use that pic. Sorry it's a very crappy one.