New Finch Mansion!

Finchlet · Post by **Finchlet** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:31 pm

Well, after seeing all of your wonderful aviaries, I must build one for my little darlings. I think they would really love it.

I decided on the screen door panel design shown on the finch info website. Today I purhased the screen door panels. I will be working on painting those, and buying supplies little by little. (in between work, school, etc...) I wish I could do it all at once, but I must be patient.

Below is a picture of my current setup. They have a nice bright window that gets some direct sunlight for a brief period of time in the morning, but still has shady areas. The new mansion will take up this whole area. The actual bird area not including the antechamber will be 3 feet by 7 1/2 feet. (and almost 7 feet high) I will keep the flights as breeding cages in another area of the house.
Well, here are the pics of the current San Francisco style townhomes......notice the new migratory location of the vacuum

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:35 pm

That's a nice cage setup you have now. But I can understand wanting the larger indoor aviary. I built mine using the screen doors about 14 months ago and am very glad I did. It's so much easier to maintain it rather than all those cages!

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:26 am

hi finchlet
i agree with tammie,your setup at the moment looks fine they have plenty of light and room.but i can see how building a screen door thpe setup would give them more space.will you be putting it in the same place as building it over the window would be ideal you could always put some wheels on the base so you could move it away from the window to clean

ken

plantsandbirds · Post by **plantsandbirds** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:56 am

Nice! I feel rather ashamed of my extremely modest setup....but I've ordered a medium sized flight cage for my finches (and one for the parakeets) to try to give them more room in my very tiny house!

I also have to hang both the finch and parakeet cages way off the floor because of my Jack Russell Terrier, who is really fond of the birds

.

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:25 am

it really doesnt matter about the size of your setup as long as your birds are well cared for and happy!and if they start to build nests were ever they are,they feel safe with thier surroundings you cant ask for more than that

ken

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:28 am

finchlet
if you dont mind me saying..is it possible for you to put the perches the narrow way accross your cages as that would give them more exercise flying back and forth in stead of up and down

ken

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:59 pm

Oh yeah, I hadn't noticed the perches.

Your birds will get more exercise if you cut the perches down so they run front to back, rather than side to side. They will be able to fly from one end of the cage to the other instead of just hopping from perch to perch.

The people who make these cages have NO clue.

bluefinch · Post by **bluefinch** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 2:35 pm

Hey finchlet nice setup. I look forward to seeing your aviary when it is finished!

vetbridge · Post by **vetbridge** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:32 pm

Yes, please post a pic of your project at completion (and step by step if you have the energy)!

Also, do you realize that your TV is on my old microwave cart?

debbyloo · Post by **debbyloo** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:17 pm

I want to see your aviary too - please do post pictures. Also, are you happy with your seed hoppers? Do they REALLY keep the seed hulls off the floor, or just cut down on them somewhat? I see you do not have one of those fabric thingys to keep the hulls in the cage - but, you also have that migratory vacuum. Just wondering whether I want to try the hoppers or not.

Thanks!

Post by **Hilary** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:29 pm

I can vouch for the hoppers. Nothing will keep all of the seed in the cages, but judging by how often I have to empty the hulls from the catch tray, the hoppers are retaining a lot of the debris! Watch your birds and make sure they're willing to use them - out of over 20 cages I have ONE pair that refuse to use anything but an open cup of seed. My societies, on the other hand, love them, and will even sleep in or on them....

That design for the screen door aviary is what I want to try as well, so please do post pictures of the progress!

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:40 pm

I inherited seed hoppers like the ones in the above photo. There is one drawback to them IMO. They can only be mounted on the outside of the cage.

For this reason I prefer the ones that TammyS. sells

http://www.justbirdstuff.com/product.ph ... bestseller

cause I want mine inside the aviary.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:41 pm

The screen door avairy is a piece of cake. My brother and I built mine in one weekend.

Finchlet · Post by **Finchlet** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:41 pm

Wow, thanks for all the input you guys! Yes, I plan to put the aviary where the cages are now. I would like it to be on wheels so we can move it and clean or open the windows. As for my cages, the design does somewhat prevent me from putting the perches the other way. I was trying to arrange the cages so they could be the short way instead of the long way, but......the food and water doors are along the front of the cage and I didnt want a perch over the food/water. I thought I was going to be able to do it with the seed hoppers, but you're right, they can't be mounted on the inside. O-well. They still fly back and forth. I have little clothespins on the sides in the top section that they use to go back and forth. I do like the seed hoppers. They don't eliminate all the mess, but they contain part of it. The birds were afraid of them at first, as usual. They got used to it in about a day. The gouldians don't really like them, I can tell how much they use them by how many seed hulls are in the catch trays. The goulds have been eating the millet sprays and rejecting the seed hopper. I put a regular cup of seed back in for them. The hoppers also came with a rubber stopper thing with a glass tube for water bottles. I never was able to get any of the birds to drink out of them. So I ended up using the metal springy wire thing (that holds the water bottle to the cage) to hold the seed hoppers to the cage. I have bumped into them several times and made more of a mess than the birds do.

I will post pics as I go along. It's going to take me awhile to complete but I will keep you posted along the way. Oh btw, the goulds LOVE their little swing. Every night they sleep on it together. Its so cute!

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:53 pm

I put mine on rollers to. You'll be glad you did!

If you want the Goulds to switch over to the hoppers, I'd just remove the millet and only have the seed cup in for part of the day. When they get good and hungry, they'll figure it out. Fortunately, the majority of my birds were used to them and the others got over their fear in a couple of days.

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New Finch Mansion!

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