My birds are HOW old!?

[MisterGribs]

So last year, my wife and I got a miserable little pair of finches from the local pet store. It was our first pair, the last remaining pair within miles, and I had hopes for regenerating their lives into something good. The person at the pet store insisted they were just under one year old. I named the male Scrambles, and Heta named the hen Weeb after the noise she makes.

I took him home, he had everything under the sun wrong with him. I spent a lot of time and money trying to rid this poor cockrel from seemingly nonstop critical respiritory problems, dry skin, muscle loss and leg tremors, thin feathers, overgrown claws, you name it. This finch seemed to have had it rough, being so young and having so many health problems. Worse still, nothing the vet gave me seemed to help much at all.

I wound up getting him a nebulizer and just steaming him every morning for a while whenever he has trouble breathing or loses his voice. He loves it, ruffling his head up and sleeping in his own little finch sauna. (SPOILED.) I moved this pair and their nest outside the cage to stay in the gym/play area indefinitely, away from my bullying cfw cockrel and flying free around the room. Nothing but the best food and treats, etc.

Now that I finally have got this sickly little bird into good health, all he and his hen seem to do is sleep in their nest, stuff their faces, and spoon. These birds have never shown the slightest interest in breeding, and they are the slowest finches I have ever watched. Scrambles even sings in slow motion these days and he is getting slower.

Then I joined the finch forum, trying to gain insight on some standard introduction squabbling, when lovezebs had said that maybe my birds were just old. It had never occured to me, despite my distrustful nature, that I may have been lied to by the petstore owner. Imagine that.

So after checking up on his leg band info and how the records are kept, it turns out that Scrambles was hatched in 2008. This seems impossibly old. That would make him 9 years old. Weeb's says she was born in 2012. They are both elderly, but Scrambles is like.... Yoda. All these sicknesses and heath problems are just old age, unless the bands are also full of it. I didn't even think finches could live that long!

I would have taken them home and did everything I could for them even if the shop owner had been honest with me, but suddenly finding out that my little friends could fall off the perch at any time was an unexpected and nasty surprise, and I would have been far less upset at myself for 'letting' my birds be sick all the time.

Bending the truth to make a sale is one thing, but selling me a 9 year old bird and telling me his life had recently begun was just mean. ;(

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

Although elderly, with a good diet, good medical care, and both physical and mental activity they may still enjoy a few good years. So get out a couple of rocking chair swings, some jigsaw seed puzzles, and allow them to enjoy their retirement.

Scroll down and check out "Life Cycle"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_finch

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs 9 years old! I can't imagine him making it to 12 but I plan to give him the best retirement ever.

[lovezebs]

MisterGribs

He might even make 14, lol

[Nerine]

Seriously.....I just read somewhere recently about someone's green singing finch being over 20 when it passed.

My former neighbor's zebras lived to be 11 and 13 years old respectively.

Who knows, your birds may have a lot of mileage left in them

[MisterGribs]

Nerine lovzebs I sure hope so. Thanks for being so encouraging, I don't have any human friends and I am REALLY attached to my little ticklechickens. They stay really active, and I'll make them some new toys today and put up thier old hammock.

[Denise]

Mr. Gribs,
could you go used car shopping with me this weekend. I wanna be sure I get a good deal! LOL I had a green singer live to be late teens. And spooning is nice!
Denise

[MisterGribs]

Denise Haha, I don't know anything about cars! And yes it is... They're spooning right now.