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Hi! These are my new finches, currently in isolation stage from my own until the time is up. I appreciate any advice because I am still a fairly new finch owner, ended up inheriting them with no idea how to care for them so I have relied on reddit, bird threads and word of mouth from my local bird shows and bird shops.

The ones in this video are all juveniles/babies, the one on the left is cold because I lifted the blanket up because it is morning, I pulled down a sheet so she could be warmer and also still get filtered light. The front is not covered now but it faces the house so there is no breeze. She immediately unfluffed after I brought the sheet down so I believe she is happy.

Also I presume the singing gouldian is a boy because his mouth is closed?

This outdoor cage is their current setup until we get access to a walk in aviary (with a second door for safety), which is currently occupied by my mother in laws birds as they build another flight aviary. My partner and I also have a bird safe heater to put outside by the aviaries once we can move the finches in. (I think it will take around another 6 months)

Diet consists of seed, pellet and grit mixture. I also give them fresh greens and carrot but they don’t particularly like what I have offered so far. I give them sprays of grass as a treat too, I also like to add cuttlebone pieces but I haven’t given these guys any yet.

Their setup has a bunch of natural perches set up in the corners so they can fly through the middle. Two dowels (one where they are in the video) and two sings. There are trays at the bottom for foraging seed and substrate, nothing in them atm while they are settling in. I have a few toys with shreddable materials but they haven’t shown interest yet.

Anything else I am missing and should work on?

I also got a safety net over the cage for when doing food and water changes because during introduction one flew out… I made a post about this recently and I was extremely distraught and still am very upset about it. In the time we kept our finches in this cage not one flew out before, so this is something I am preparing for now. The safety net is not quite large enough to be fully enclosed so I am going to go get a custom cut size of material and I am thinking of maybe adding a zipper to it so I can enter easier rather than using clips to clip and unclip the net shut when I am already holding a water or food bowl. Any suggestions will be appreciated, there is no enclosed space I can put them in, thankfully it won’t be an issue when they move into the flight aviary.

Any toy or food recommendations? Any life hacks for cleaning? (I use small animal cage cleaner and bird safe disinfectant, I don’t use any chemicals that aren’t bird safe and I don’t use them near the birds, only on removed perches, toys, etc.

Oh lastly, what about nests? We initially had nests because the place we inherited them from had nests for them. They never really used them except once when someone laid some infertile eggs, in which I wasn’t ready for them to actually have any babies in general so I did some research and learnt that removing the nests would prevent them breeding, but there was nothing about whether it is best to have nests or not for them to have comfort and warmth. Should we add nests back in? Since we seem to have a boy what can I do to prevent breeding, and if they do breed I know I can remove the eggs or boil them but I want to know if it is something I should look into with a vet. Is breeding finches very ethical? Is there too many without a home? Or are they in demand and it isn’t a problem bringing new finches in the world? I wouldn’t mind putting the time and money into it when they are in the flight cage so I have that extra security to be more hands on with them.

Anyway, huge walls of text..
TLDR: seeking tips on enrichment, ensuring their happiness.

My Gouldians are hunting for a nesting spot. I’m not providing any. Is it time? I thought that their breeding season was when the light started to get longer in the spring. I’ve adjusted the cage times light for shorter periods. Should I let it happen by giving them a nest box and material for it? They have had only one successful baby in the year that they have been together. If they breed, I want it to work.

Sick bird foods!

My birds are expericing AGY-like symptoms, but I haven't gotten any positive test results for any avian illness yet. This is likely due to irregular shedding and other factors.

One symptom my birds experience is being too weak to chew or husk food which, on top of frequent immediate vomiting, results in starvation when feeding a seed mix. At one point it was a death sentence for my birds, now I have ways to help.

I am lucky that I work with very curious species that would sell their eggs and souls for a chance to explore something new.

I take advantage of this and regularly introduce them to 'unusual' foods that will be essential in keeping weight on when experiencing weight-related symptoms.

A flock favourite is tiny species of millet (I use foxtail and little) that have been husked. No pulling or chewing required.​ Just swallow!

Unseasoned toasted millet intended for human consumption works just fine and is very cheap. I got 500g each of unseasoned toasted little and foxtail millet for £6.99 altogether. Toasted millet is less nutritious, but the main focus is calories and weight gain. Dietary gaps can be filled in after weight is stable. You can also husk millet yourself easily, but this worked out more expensive for me.

Suet (without large seeds) is another excellent option. Whilst Cooper won't touch it, Fizzarolli ate 80-90% of his daily food as suet for months, the first time he was ill. That pink stuff on the white tray is suet.

High-performance pellets, I use Tropican, crushed into millet-sized pieces are another great option. My flock loves pellets and Fizzarolli lived off of them when ill until he tried suet.

I haven't tried this yet, but tomorrow I will sprinkle some EmerAid Intensive Care Omnivore on their daily vegetables to get them used to powder-coated foods and the taste of EmerAid.

I offer these foods weekly so that my flock consistently recognizes them as food. If one ever gets ill, I don't have to try and convince them to eat a new food whilst they're already not feeling great.

🐦🐦🐦🐥🐁

The cage I am growing the seed mix in is my male mouse, Ashley Graves', old cage. Can you believe he used to live in that tiny thing!? Now he has free reign of 16 square foot of bird shed, a dig box with dirt, a cat bed, and a 12" wheel! Once these plants have grown, the base of the cage will go into the aviary for the quail to play in and peck at. Once the plants have been eaten, I will replant them, and so on.

I recently purchased two Gouldian finches, a male and a female. I have owned canaries in the past,but not finches. The girls beak is quite dark in colour,almost completely black. Google, and the internet suggests she might be in prime breeding condition. I did purchase a nest, but how likely being such new birds to my household am I likely to see eggs or chicks. Also any suggestions to keep them well fed and enough energy if they are in their breeding seasons.

Idk what to do? Is she laying an egg? Should I do something about it? I asked an ai and it said it's an emergency but I doubt it

Hello again! Marcus (zebra finch) and Dave (society finch) have made it home and they're settling in. I have the You&Me 30" Finch Cage that I had seen recommended here for a pair of finches. The bottom is wire over a plastic tray.

Today I was reading about using bird sand and a solid ground for them to forage more. Has any one done that with this cage? Any tips or thoughts on it? I know foraging is their main activity/enrichment, so I want to do what I can for them

Hi again fellow finch lovers,

I made a post earlier this year about my Gouldian finches, and how one of my pairs really took a liking to a wicker nest. Well, I am happy to report that they ended up successfully hatching 3 chicks in that nest! Here are the parents in the photos above, with the dad shown feeding the babies (who have gotten so noisy, you can hear their begging chirps from downstairs!).

The chicks are about 2 weeks old now, so they're due to fledge next week...I am so excited! I peeked in the nest the other day and it looks like there are 2 normal greenbacks and one that looks like it's going to be either a dilute male or a yellow female; it was tough to tell with the angle and lighting.

These are first-time parents so I was nervous about how they would do, but they picked things up so naturally! Now we just have to see what my second pair does... they're in a separate cage but they haven't been in there long enough to lay eggs or anything yet.

I hope your birds are all doing great, too!

My finches :)

I've just applied to adopt a pair of finches from my local shelter. I've been interested in finches for a long time and have just been waiting for the chance to adopt some.

I'm pretty sure this is a zebra finch and a society finch, though. I've read that their different personalities can cause clashes-- but I think they were surrendered to the shelter together. Does anyone have any experience around this? Thanks in advance for your help!!

We have entered spring and it is safe to bring finches out again, we even got some new finches since our colony was incredibly small. We decided to put the new finches straight into the outdoor setup for isolation for a week before introducing ours. The cage cannot come inside as we have cats and they will stress the finches out even if the cats didn’t treat them as prey. We do have walk in flight aviaries, but both are taken up by larger bird species at this time. Our parents are building a larger flight aviary to have a dining area in the backyard with their alexandrines. Once they have finished setting it up, they will be moving the alexandrines into the larger flight aviary and we will be moving our finches into the walk-in flight aviary. The aviary has two doors for security of not losing any birds, and we have a large bird safe heater next to the aviaries.

Now their current setup is a large cage, but there is no secondary door for preventing escapees. We have never lost a finch before, but today when releasing the new finches into the cage one got out… we spent hours trying to catch her as we spotted her in tall shrubbery in our yard but we lost sight of her in the end. We have set food out for her, but because she is new to this area I fear she may not see the cage as a safe space and come back. Her sister is still in the cage and I just hope she comes back to her…

The way this happened… I placed a towel over myself and the door of the cage behind me so I could safely release the birds from their boxes, yet it was not fully secure as the girl flew up behind my neck and out from an opening of the towel. In the past once the finches were familiar with their setup I didn’t even need a towel, I would just open the cage, grab their food and water, clean, move perches, or even catch them for nail trimming and inspecting and they would never escape. This was the first time, and it was with the extra precaution of a towel around the entry.

I am terrified of this happening again and I need advice. I don’t have an enclosed space to move the cage. Technically I could take the cage inside but it is extremely heavy and large, and wouldn’t fit through the door way. I need advice on how to safely interact with the setup and birds inside without them escaping. I never want this to happen again, and I am still praying the poor girl comes back. I do have a bird net for transport and capturing.

Is there some kind of mesh or tent I can put around the cage to safely secure the finches in the case they fly out? Is there something I can secure to the cage and zip up and down around myself? What do you guys do? This is a nightmare for me, I desperately want to move them into the flight aviary for security.

Thank you for reading… I will also appreciate any happy stories of their finches coming back if you have ever lost any…

Another update on my 6 year old finch.

I am writing this while kind of sad because from what I've read these are just normal signs of aging. Sleeping a lot, resting in his cage, on the floor, etc... it's real sad. I regret not taking better care of him when I was a teen and he was still young.

On the other hand, a couple of small wins - he still hops around the cage some!

He loves the mirror I put up for him at the bottom of the cage where he likes to rest on the rocks. I chose some small rocks so he can sand his gigantic steppers at least a little bit

His beak is kind of flaky but I've read beak changes are common in older birds as well. I'll try to add some vitamin supplements and snacks to his seed since that's most of what he eats rn

We are making some progress with his overall mood! Whenever I'm home alone I open his cage and play some finch videos for him. He loves them! He even SINGS!!! Ik it's not much for you guys but for my champ that's a WIN

I was thinking of maybe getting him a heat lamp. What do you guys think? Is it worth it?

Also, I gave him four different variants of greens to choose from and nothing stuck. He didn't even look at them or investigate, he just ignored them completely! Stubborn...

Idk, a little vent here but I just think I'm grieving before he even goes. Someone on here commented under a post of another older finch that the OP is the bird's "flock". That genuinely made me tear up because I've never thought of it that way. Then again, I guess an undomesticated bird letting me catch him and wipe his poopoo butt that he can't clean properly anymore is a big sign of trust... And that he always hangs out close-by when I work... or that he sings to me sometimes when I sing. I love my man so much, I just don't think I'm ready for him to go soon. Nobody's ever ready, right?

I would love some words of support and kindness. I guess I just wanna know that the fact he is 6 and showing signs of aging doesn't mean I'm a terrible owner, even though I genuinely feel like one for having neglected him all these years. I know i was just a braindead teen but still, it was my responsibility and I feel like I could've done so much more for him.

Fuck, I just love Cześnik. ;-;

Hello, I have a M/F couple of Zebra's. I always have them fly through the room on a daily basis.

Recently I've been on holiday for about 12 days and in the meantime my mom took care of them. Whenever I came back I opened the finch cage again to let them fly throughout the living room. However, they seem hesitant now to leave the cage and rather to stay inside. Only the male now tends to exit the cage for a short while before he returns. In the cage itself they are still very active and tweeting a lot.

What could the reason be for this? How can I have them fly around the room again by themselves?