Berrie's cage. Any thoughts?

[Shelleypg1919]

This is my new set up for the Berries. Any thoughts? I am either going to be putting BCCB or Lavenders with them.

photo (16).JPG[/attachment ][attachment=0]photo (14).JPG

[Shelleypg1919]

I seriously don't know how to make those photos stand up straight. Darn.

[Sally]

I would replace the dowel perches with natural perches you cut from branches in your yard--better for their feet.

[Shelleypg1919]

Thank you Sally. I do have 4 of the manzanita or whatever you call them branches in there... up high behind the foliage. I have the dowel ones down low just to give something down there.

[Mae]

I have the same yellow silk flowers! Mine love to play in them

[Shelleypg1919]

I got mine at JoAnn's. On sale!

[Perfex]

My thoughts are that you have a fairly rare, hard to come by species and if your intention ( as it should be if you have ANY rare species) is to breed them, then I would NOT add other birds to this cage setup. I would add more privacy greenery to the outside of the cage.

[Tammy]

I love your set up. keep us posted. -tammy

[Musetta]

I know nothing about Berries, but I think it looks great! As Sally mentioned, it is of course good to have a variety of perches, but I like what you have done with sort of layering and angling the dowels at the bottom of the cage. Makes for a more interesting and stimulating environment for them, I think. I would be interested to know whether they take advantage of it, as it is so hard to get most finches to explore the lower part of cages like this!

[Shelleypg1919]

Yes, my goal is to breed them. Someone mentioned that isolation is not good either. It was my thought to keep them separate and just have other birds in the room with them. I just wanted thoughts on whether they breed better by themselves or would do better with another pair (different species but compatible) to stimulate normal bird behavior. Generally more birds than one pair in the wild.

It is a learning experience and I very much welcome your input. I have a ton of greenery around the cage and even more around the nests, but I will get some more.

Now to figure out about live food! Yuck!

[Perfex]

I would use no more than 5-6 short natural perches; it helps with flight/exercise as well as territorial claims; you may also want to add at least twice the amount of greenery shown in the pictures; place them to create two distanced breeding zones (higher up in the cage). BBCC+Berries food should be served close to the ground and/or directly on it / Lavender+Berries - food should be provided on different heights. These three can breed without live food (esp. Berries).

When you say no live food is necessary for breeding, you still mean that dried or frozen insects/ worms are needed, right?? I thought these three species required a fair amount of insect in their diet to raise chicks, but feel free to correct me.

[Perfex]

As mentioned, live food is not necessarily needed. To further clarify that comment; that is only if they are conditioned to get by with dried and/or frozen insects (which is not live food). Still, Berries are the exception here; they can be bred without live and dried/frozen food from the start, but again only if they are conditioned well enough. It is a waste of effort if one obtains a pair of these (any of the three) and attempts to breed them within a couple of short weeks and without live food (comment is not directed at the original poster by any means btw).

Psylosibin6 Thank you for clarifying. Interesting. You really are a wealth of information, I appreciate you taking the time to educate.

[metinemre]

Did you add a pair to berries cage?

[isobea]

Shelleypg1919 - I am also interested what your final decision was. Did your berries breed successfully? If so, how many babies did they raise and did they require live food?
My strawberries fed their young tons of live mini mealworms, especially during the first week. I also saw them hunting for fruit flies every day - I keep a bowl with overripe fruit and veggies inside the aviary.
I noticed that my pair would rather pick up their food from the floor (after I had accidentally spilled some seed) than from the elevated food tray that everybody else uses.
Iso

[Sally]

I believe Shelleypg1919 sold these birds some time ago.