So I have no intention of massive breeding of my finches (Plan to breed once in the future and limit to two chicks), but I am curious how one avoids the problems I am about to propose.
Say you start off with a male and female as I currently have. You breed them and lets say they have clutch of six. 3 boys and 3 girls. I'm sure there are specifics to certain species, but lets try to ignore these as much as possible and just talk general.
Generally you should not house the kids with the parents (after they grow up) as eventually the kids will become sexually mature and will begin mating - brother sister, father daughter, mother son, etc. This to me should be a no brainier, ie a big NO! Also, the father will potentially become territorial and aggressive towards the other males.
So the only solution seems to be to increase your cages to three. One for the parents, and two for the kids (separate male and female cages). If you intend to continue to breed them down the road, either continue to breed the original parents, or you need to introduce a new unrelated male or female to create a new breeding pair with one of the kids.
Am I correct here in my assumptions regarding both safe breeding practices AND proper housing of offspring?
I said I wasn't going to get specific, but this makes me wonder how people control populations and pairing in open finch aviaries? How when you have 20 finches in an outside aviary, do you prevent them from inbreeding???
Thanks!
Say you start off with a male and female as I currently have. You breed them and lets say they have clutch of six. 3 boys and 3 girls. I'm sure there are specifics to certain species, but lets try to ignore these as much as possible and just talk general.
Generally you should not house the kids with the parents (after they grow up) as eventually the kids will become sexually mature and will begin mating - brother sister, father daughter, mother son, etc. This to me should be a no brainier, ie a big NO! Also, the father will potentially become territorial and aggressive towards the other males.
So the only solution seems to be to increase your cages to three. One for the parents, and two for the kids (separate male and female cages). If you intend to continue to breed them down the road, either continue to breed the original parents, or you need to introduce a new unrelated male or female to create a new breeding pair with one of the kids.
Am I correct here in my assumptions regarding both safe breeding practices AND proper housing of offspring?
I said I wasn't going to get specific, but this makes me wonder how people control populations and pairing in open finch aviaries? How when you have 20 finches in an outside aviary, do you prevent them from inbreeding???
Thanks!