Star Finch

doogiebowser · Post by **doogiebowser** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:53 pm

We have had 1 male Star Finch and two female Stars. The first female we kept with the male, after 5 months she died. She showed no signs of stress or any weezing. We purchased another Female Star and after a month she looked bad, we took her out of the flight cage and housed her with other finches. She looked great, we had her for 5 months and she died. Does anyone have experience with Stars. We have had finches for over 5 years. We give them plenty of vitamins and calcium. She was not egg bound and had no respitory problems that we could tell. Please respond if you know about this species.
Thank you

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zookeeper · Post by **zookeeper** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:32 am

I have one male star finch, would like to get more if I could find some!

But anyway, he has had only one health problem in the 6+ months I've had him. He got unbelievably skinny -- he looked like a bird skull on a toothpick, but showed no other symptoms.

Since he eats live food, I suspected he picked up some parasites from waxworms and/or mealworms. I gave him some bird deworming medicine, and he IMMEDIATELY started gaining weight and soon became the picture of health again.

saragoescrazy · Post by **saragoescrazy** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:29 pm

I have no idea why your stars would have died. I more or less haven't had too much of a problem with stars and I have 6 at the moment...

3 females - 2 yellow and 1 red
3 males - 2 reds and 1 yellow

The last pair I bought (a red female and male) ended up having air sac mites because of their coughing and we're now treating them for that. But my first bird since I came to Australia was a yellow male star and he's been thriving since we got him pretty much... I can't tell you what killed off your two females, but if you have any questions I'll try to help ya

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:49 pm

It could be that your male is a silent carrier of a disease. I would recommend getting any future dead birds necropsied in hopes of finding and answer and/or having your male star finch tested for diseases (cloacal/choanal swab and/or fecal electron microscopy).

Good luck.