Weaning goldfinches

[ukSVN]

Hi, I'm a veterinary nurse and have been hand rearing three wild goldfinches that a client brought in after her cat turned up with them. Tomorrow I will have had them for 2 weeks, and all 3 are doing really well - I don't know much about birds at all but it's been a steep learning curve with the help of the internet!

I've been using Kaytee exact handfeeding formula and they always have access to some soaked seed, millet and egg food, as well as offering little bits of greens and boiled egg and a bit of the kaytee formula in a dish. They've pecked at the seed occasionally but don't really seem interested in eating. Google tells me they're meant to be independent at 28-30 days old but I don't know how old they were when they arrived. Is there anything else I should be doing to encourage them to eat on their own? I have tried giving it a bit longer between feeds to see if they'll get hungry and try, but I don't want to starve them!

Attached is a photo from the day they were brought in, and one from today 13 days on. If anyone could advise roughly how old they might be and when they should be weaned I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

[Sally]

Kudos to you for making the effort to save these babies! Have they fledged yet, flown on their own? I have no idea at what age Goldfinches would wean, but most finches take anywhere from one to three weeks to wean after they have fledged. I would think that wild birds would wean faster than our captive domestic babies. However, in my experience, hand-fed babies take longer to wean than parent-raised.

Your diet sounds just about right. Goldfinches do eat a lot of niger seed, so you might add that to their seed mix if it is not present already. By millet, do you mean spray millet? My hand-fed babies always tried spray millet and egg food first, and soaked seed is great for babies, so they don't have to work so hard to hull the seed.

These guys look like they are about ready to fledge, if they haven't already, so I don't think it will be long before they are eating on their own. Are you planning to release them to the wild? It isn't legal to keep them as pets, but what you are doing (saving them from certain death) is great in my book. Be sure they are not only eating but drinking on their own before you release them.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of information at www.finchinfo.com, though most of it does apply only to our captive pet birds. Good luck with this, and please keep us posted on them. Great job!

[Sally]

I might add that some hand-fed babies will stay dependent on their human far longer than they should, they just refuse to wean. At this stage, they shouldn't need food any more often than every four hours. When they are close to weaning, they may cry and beg a lot, and you will have to watch closely to see that they are eating well.

[ukSVN]

Thank you, I'm really pleased with how well they've done as we really didn't expect them to survive to be honest. Yes it's spray millet, and the seed mix contains niger - I had a browse through lots of threads on here to see what weaning food was recommended and basically am trying everything. They started flying about 9 or 10 days ago and are good and strong, they often escape while I'm feeding them and do a few laps of the room! I am planning to release them as soon as they're ready. I'll let them go in my back garden and hopefully they'll stay around here - we always have food out for wild birds anyway, and cats don't dare come near our garden because of the dogs (one of which is 15yo and the other is half blind so neither of them is any threat!). The info I've read says to avoid letting them get too tame but that's very difficult to do, I was feeding them every 20 minutes for the first couple of days so they quickly got used to me and now they jump all over me shouting for food!
For the last few days I've been feeding them every 2-3 hours but they're constantly begging. I'm looking forward to being able to release them, they're noisy little buggers!

[Sally]

ukSVN Since they fledged 9 or 10 days ago, they are definitely getting close to weaning. I'd stretch the feedings out to at least 4 hours apart. Though they'll beg loudly, you'll have to be like a bird parent, and practice tough love with them.

One of my nieces raised a Bluejay one summer, and once she released it, it would return to land on her finger when she called it. Eventually, it stopped returning, but she said it was quite rewarding to see it in her garden and know that she had saved it.

[ukSVN]

I went to work today and left them at home for the first time (I've been bringing them in with me up to now) and my sister text me near the end of my shift to say one of them had died. I'm absolutely gutted.
Turns out my sister had sprayed kitchen cleaner on the counter next to their cage, so I think that's the most likely cause. I'm always telling her not to use any chemicals or sprays near my pet canary so she should have known better.
If not the spray then I'm wondering if she choked on a seed or something - I wish I hadn't left them at home. I could cry, I've put so much effort into raising them and I was so proud of how well I was doing with them, I can't believe I've lost one now.

[Sally]

Oh, so sorry to hear this. It is devastating when you have put so much of yourself into saving them. I would bet it was the kitchen cleaner that is the culprit, birds have such sensitive respiratory systems. How is the other one doing?