Not too many people talk about their finches but I am sure we have some members who have them.

 

Why don't you get two unpaired ones and see if they will pair up with the ones you have. I used to breed Gouldians and never had a problem getting whichever pair I wanted to breed. Maybe I was just lucky. Good lighting and good food seems to make them broody.

 

I had zebras for a short time but their voices were very hard on my hearing. I have hearing loss and shrill noises set me on edge.

 

We'd love to see pics. You can create an album if you'd like to.

Annie

I have been waiting for the pet store to get more zebras but they hadn't had them the last few times I went. They are supposed to have some now but I can't get there until maybe weekend after next .

I have some good lighting now and they get good food(seeds with vitamins, egg food, green food and some live food).

Right now my society finches are setting on 4 eggs .

male society

 

The nest I made from pineneedles using the same technique as making pineneedle baskets.

 

The cage we made.

 

male zebra and the society pair.

 

                     Becky

 

Awww, they are cuties. Love the little nest. It never occurred to me to make a nest. I used nestboxes for my Gouldians and societies. Mounted them outside the cage so I could look in the top daily. They were so used to my peeking that they didn't get upset when I handled tiny babies.

Is that a sandpaper cover on your perch? If so, it can hurt their feet. Stores sell them, so many people buy them not realizing they can damage the little feet. The best perches are made from small forked tree branches, cut from bird safe trees, that have been scrubbed and dried.

I love the varieties of colors in the societies. I chose each of mine for its gorgeous mixture of colors.

Annie

What a nice place for finches to live.  I have a cage similar to that, about that long, but taller--it was built to be an iguana cage.  I moved everybirdy out so I could clean it, and haven't put them back yet  Time to cut some fresh branches and move them back in.

Oh yeah.....Annie mentioned the sandy perch covers, but I will too....there is no reason they need them, and they really are irritating to the bottoms of the feet.

I like the set up and they look happy.

 

I know someone who is handraising a Finch... that's got to be a chore but she wants to see if there is a difference in parent weaning and human  raising... So far the little Finch is very sweet and likes cuddles and scritches...

I put the sand perch in on just one of the branches because when I got the spice finches they had these really long nails. Though I must admit I always used them with my finches before, with my parakeets and with my cocketeil and they never seemed to have any feet problems. I do use tree branches of different shapes and sizes for all the perches.

I try to have things as natural as possible and the birds do seem happy in the new cage. Now if I could just get Phil to build me another one exactly the same on top of that one, lol.

Can't say that I would want to hand raise one. I don't have the time that would take but I bet it is an interesting experiment anyway.

                                             Becky

                                                 

I've hand-fed about 20 Zebra finches and still have one of the first ones.  He's 9 years old, has been caged with other finches since he was weaned, but he still responds to me, coming up to the front of the cage when I talk to him, or coming right down to the food dish while my hand is still inside the cage.

 

It's a :LOT of work raising them this way, they need to be fed very often, especially in the early days.  But they are very tame and it's a lot of fun to let them fly loose and have them all land on you.

I bet it is neat but for me for some reason the whole fun of having finches is knowing that they are fairly wild. I don't know why. I just love to watch them do things as naturally as possible(It is possible I am just strange. I can sit and just watch my chickens for the longest time too, lol).

My parakeets weren't tame but my cocketiel was and she was awfully dependent on our company all the time. Right now I don't have a lot of time to spend on birds so the finches are great.

                   Becky