Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
My male white finch is quiet and fluffy since yesterday. He was fine yesterday morning making noises, but by evening he was quiet and this morning he was fluffy, quiet, and sleepy. He ate boiled egg shell and the white yesterday.
Please advice me what to do.:(
I suggest finding a vet that specializes in feathered family!
They are family too and if he is not himself, it is best to have him looked at by the vet. If for nothing else to give you peace of mind.
Prayers for the feathered one!! And you!!
I treated him by keeping the cage in warm area and spreading fresh Neem Leaves over the cage for 3 days .Thanks to GOD. He is fine now
My finch was left for seven days while we were on vacation. We provided enough food and water for her. Now she just sits in her food and poops and doesn't like to sit at the top of her cage anymore. What's wrong with her?
By Marilyn K.
Don't worry about the poop on the food. Birds kinda poop where they want so it's okay. But the "Doesn't want to sit on top of the cage" part - think she/he might be sick or something.
Sounds like she may be sick.
You don't mean you left her alone for seven days, I hope? It's best to put her in a small cage and let someone take care of her, even if they just give her fresh water every day, fresh food about every other day, and change the paper at least once.
You also need the temperature to be relatively high for finches, as they are natives of places like New Zealand. Did you turn the heat down when you left? Did any of the nights get cold?
Bacteria from poop in the water can grow over a matter of days, causing illness. Wipe the slimy stuff out of the water container every time you change it. When the food is about half shells, not whole seeds, change it.
In case you don't already know, finches need grit to eat as well as food. On warm sunny days give them a bowl of water to bathe in.
My finch's one eye is always closed. What is the reason and how can I cure it? Will it automatically cure itself? Please suggest some remedy to me or whether I want to go to a vet clinic.
My finches are officially parents and have 2 little hatchlings, it's my first time having bred birds and I'm not aware of the necessary precautions I would need to make sure of. I read around online that people do "nest checks" from the moment the eggs are laid til they are fledglings. Also I want to train the babies to be human prone, not to skittish and timid like the parents.
I greatly welcome any concrete information I can get.
Unfortunately, Finches are one of the wildest bird breeds that people keep as pets. They are considered extremely difficult to adapt to humans and are almost always skittish.
You can provide fresh food and water, a cuttlebone or crushed eggshell, and grit.
You can keep an eye on the eggs, but honestly, I think the people you describe may not be doing the right thing. A bird is extremely protective over her nest and babies and gets stressed out when people interfere too much. If she gets too stressed she may just decide to abandon the nest. Once a day with a flashlight when she goes to eat should be fine.
My zebra finches have laid one egg. I need to move to another location. Could moving affect the egg? Will it hatch? Will they lay any other eggs?
They will probably get stressed during the move and ignore any eggs they lay. If they don't sit on the eggs for several days, remove them.
I'm very new at breeding finches. I have a pair that have had eggs and they are doing very well at keeping them warm, but I looked at them in the morning and I think the mother died. Will the father take care of them or will I have to as I have no way to keep them warm. Is there a way to keep them warm without having to buy stuff? Thank you.
By Kerry
The father should take care of them. If he doesn't, it's probably better they don't hatch anyway, unfortunately, since the dad won't feed them if he didn't even bother to sit on them. Sorry about your bird.
My fiches are always simply sitting. Also they are not making sounds frequently. Is there any problem with them? I bought them just 2 days ago. I am just a beginner. I don't have any experience with birds.
I just adopted 8 zebra finches, they arrived in 3 cages. They come from a breeder they say, but the cages look like it's been a very long time since they were deep cleaned.
It will take me a full day to disinfect them. They are from the same place. I have a big cage 44 x14 x18, can I put them all together? I have 5 females and 3 male.I think it will be ok to do it for a couple of hours.
the only problem i would see, even for a few hours, is whether male zebra finches are like roosters or other males of other species and liable to start a war when in a confined space
It seems that same sex finches get along OK together as long as there's no nest in there. THe minute there's a nest they can begin fighting
I got 1 couple of Zebra finches (male and female) about 4 months ago. I had a small cage at first, but then after reading more about them, I bought them a big one and they were happy with it. That's when they started mating and the female would lay eggs about everyday into the food container and sit in it. I did not want them to nest and that's why I did not get them a nest, so I would throw the egg away, but as soon as the next day there would be another egg.
This lasted for about 2 months with an average of 3 eggs per week. Now that has dropped to about 1 a week. The female stopped moving like before. She would sit in the food container all day with just a couple of minutes of exercise in the morning, but staying still in the food container all day. I try to scare her sometimes to come out, but she would go back in right after that. What seems to be the problem?I think she is depressed.
If you don't want birds to reproduce, do not get a male and female. It is natural for them to do this.
Your female bird should get along with other females. Will the pet store let you exchange your male for a female bird? The male would rather be with a female that is allowed to mate, and I'm sure the female would rather not prepare to care for babies that never appear.
First you have to realize, when you get an animal. You have to get the pet concept out of your head. because you will never have adequate compassion for the bird.
Animals have the same feelings as humans. Can you take a cub from a lioness or a puppy from a dog. By you throwing the eggs away, showed no compassion at all for your bird. And never forget, animals can sense your feelings as we can sense someone who is angry around us. as I stated. We have to get out of the mind frame of calling animals pets. Your will bond much better without that mind frame.
you can't let her lay eggs like that she will become egg bound and die ,boil some egg, and smash up the shells I let them air dry then go over them with a rolling pin sprinkle the shells in a separate dish not in her food . feed her the egg also , remove what ever she is laying the eggs in from the cage if you have a pair you can not give them anything that resembles a nest they will keep breeding and laying eggs if she keeps laying eggs you need to separate them or she will die from laying that many eggs constantly
Yesterday I got 3 finches from a shelter (a mother and her 2 daughters) called Honk (the mother), Meep and Beep. I've never had birds before and so far those 3 seem really adorable, but I couldn't find any cages for them yesterday so I had to get them a small one and I ordered a larger one that should get here next week, until now they won't stop making noise.
I wonder if it's because they're settling in or because the cage is too small? They poop in their water and I'm not sure what to do.I'm a new owner of two young female zebra finches. When we first bought them they had only a tiny cage. We let them out into the bedroom to fly multiple times a week to negate how small it was. We've upgraded them to a much larger cage, and today I was going to let them out, but they refuse and are just flying around their cage as usual.
They've perched on the door to go outside, just won't go outside. Is this fine and they're just happy where they are or is something wrong?My white female finch's babies hatched 8 days ago. I want to change the cage to a bigger one. Is it fine to change the cage now or I should wait until the babies grow and come out of their nest.
Will she abandon the babies if I touch their nest or transfer all of them to new cage? Please advise me what I should do.I would leave her alone until the babies are grown more. You can have a bigger cage for the next babies.
My zebra finch female is sleeping during the afternoon; is it normal?
By Zoukaa
My female finch seems to be okay but she she sleeps a lot and is not active as the male but ahe does not show any sign of illness is this normal
I have 2 zebra finches a male and female. I have had them for 2 weeks as they were needing to be re-homed from an elderly man. I had them 5 days when I discovered an egg in one of the feeding boxes which they tend to sleep in. She laid 4 eggs, but after several days of her sitting on them she managed to get them out of the box and unfortunately they broke when landing on the bottom of the cage.
For the past 2 days she has continued to sit in the box like before and she has taken to fighting with the male as often as today. What should I do as I am a complete beginner.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.
He said he would like to get some finches and I read that zebra finches are the easiest birds to keep as pets so I thought I would ask about those. Also, how much of a pain is it to keep their cages clean? Any info would be greatly appreciated, thank you.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. Give it some time and this should be fine. They are very protective of their eggs and young.
