Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
My husband is really wanting birds for pets, but I have been fighting him on it for a long time now because I saw someone on TV say that pet birds never shut up, even if you cover up the cage. I feel bad that I keep telling him no so I thought I would do a little research on it.
These birds so chirp, but less so than other birds. It is important to keep the bottom of the cage clean. Every day is best, every other day is also acceptable.
My zebra finches Rosie and Harry won't let me go near their cage and I can't even go past the cage without them trying to peck me. I'm only young so I don't know what to do?
Normally when birds mate and lay eggs, they don't want anyone near their cage. It seems that your birds are in the process of mating and laying eggs.
I saw some zebra finches at our local pet store and fell in love. I have had birds before but not this breed. I have been researching them online and found that they like to breed.
I do not want to breed them so is it OK to get a couple females or males instead of one of each. Thanks.Yes. Get a pair of the same sex. Don't get 3 of mixed sexes or else the two of one sex will be fighting for the attention of the third.
I have two finches, a male and a female. After a lot of eggs they finally got one baby going on, but he was injured because of our neighbor's cat. Then they kept attacking him, so I took him to the vet. He's doing good, but his paw is black which means it's dead. I am waiting for the vet to reopen to take him back. Even if the baby finch is doing good, every time I put him back in the cage with his parents they keep attacking him hard. So I put him again in a smaller cage. My question is, when can I put him back again with his parents? Will he be OK by himself? He's, I think one month or two months old, but still wants his mother,
My second question, I have a very large cage with the finch parents and two canary birds, female and male, but they don't breed. Is it OK to keep the two canaries with the finches? I see they are doing good so I'm not really worried, but I don't see the canaries breeding they don't get close at all.
I would separate the finches from the canaries.
I would also separate the baby from its mother. Maybe another finch could adopt him.
I have read online that Zebra finches need 10-12 uninterrupted hours sleep a night. We keep ours in an uncovered cage in a room where there are large windows and glass doors, so they wake up at the first sight of daylight, and start singing. In the winter they get close to 10-12 hours sleep, but I am wondering what they need in the summer months, as then they will be waking up between 4 and 5 am, and will get less hours of sleep. Is this a problem? Should they be getting less hours of sleep in the summer or should it be 10-12 hours all the year round?
By P.S.
What I do to keep my Zebra finches asleep is put a blanket over their cage. Then, when they start singing take off the blanket.
I have two female zebra finches and they are building a nest together and dancing together like they would if it was a male and female. Is that normal?
By Jane
Where did you get them? Do you know if they were raised by single mothers? Finches imprint on their parents to use as models for a mate later on.
I got some zebra finches last week and they love millet sprays, but I know that budgies and cockatiels shouldn't have millet sprays all the time because they are high in fat. I usually give my budgie/cockatiels one or two sprays a week so they don't get overweight and I was wondering if I should do the same with my finches or if they can have the millet sprays whenever they want. I'm really enjoying my finches, they are so cute and tiny! Thanks! :)
By Aly P.
No doubt the same feeding routine for the cockatiels and budgies with the millet sprays would be fine for the finches. Enjoy the wee birds but be warned they are very quick so protect the cage door entries as they could escape very easily. I put a length of shade cloth over the door so as to put my hand through on opening to lesson the chances of them escaping.
I have 4 zebra finches, 2 males and 2 females. One of the females laid four eggs in one nest and is sitting on a different nest with all the others. After 1 week or something she laid 4 more in another nest and all of the birds sit on them, but during the day they don't. If anybody could explain please? Thank you.
By fayed from Giza, EG
I called my sister-in-law who once owned Zebra finches as I know nothing about them and she said, "The female will sit on the nest much longer and hardly get off it the closer the time comes for the eggs to hatch. When the female first lays her eggs, she will leave her nest a few days for food and water and will get back on the nest. It's more the bird's nature."
Should I give my finches some time outside in their cage to get fresh air?
By A S
Can I use real grass on the bottom of my finch cage?
By Geordie
My mom finches just had babies should I feed the mom some kind of special food?
By Lisa
Our finches had eggs which hatched. The father was feeding them until he died. He's been dead for about a day, and though we haven't been watching very diligently, we haven't seen the mother feeding them yet. I was just wondering if we should do something, or let the mother take care of them on her own?
By Dale C.
I have 2 finches, a male and a female, who had 10 eggs. They laid them in a small open nest. We are afraid that when they do hatch they will fall out and die. We have a larger closed nest that we want to put in, but they might leave the other nest with the eggs. Can we transfer the eggs from one nest to another without interfering with the hatching of the egg?
By Sweetie Sugercane
This is a page about breeding Zebra finches. Zebra finches make excellent parents, you just need to follow a few steps to make breeding a rewarding experience for all.
Go slow and don't disturb the finch's nest when tidying up a cage. This is a page about cleaning a finch cage while she is sitting on eggs.
It can be difficult to determine the age of a finch hatchling. They will typically leave the nest between 11 and 19 days. This is a page about, "How old is my baby finch?".
This is a page about introducing a new zebra finch into the cage. New birds like other pets need to be introduced to resident birds to ease stress and hopefully establish a lasting companionship.
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
I just got 4 Zebra finches, 2 girls and 2 boys. I have both pairs in the same cage. One pair already laid 4 eggs.
I have a pair of Zebra finches that have both been sitting on 8 eggs for almost three weeks now. My concern is when I look at the eggs I see yolk and a hollow space.
I recently bought Zebra Finches. Now I see there are eggs in the nest. Does anyone have info on these birds that they can share with me?
