• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

New to finches

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
So I've built my aviary.... just one more thing I need to do on it and it will be ready for the birds once I put all the branches and perches etc. I have only got to fit the feeding door to it which will be done tomorrow. I have scrubbed all the wire mesh down with white vinegar so the odor of that will be gone soon I'll air out the room in the morning. Its an indoor aviary.

The finches are currently in a flight cage. I have 9 zebra finches plus a poorly zebra finch so 10 in total. I may separate the poorly finch. Is it to soon adding them to the aviary or should i wait another day or two? I'm just concerned about the odor of the vinegar?

I'll also be rescuing 3 canaries in the next few days. I'm looking to breed them so I might end up building an extra cage to house a breeding pair of canaries and the other one will go in with the finches. I've never owned canaries before so I'm looking forward to getting everything done and seeing the finches in there new aviary and then getting the 3 canaries.
 
Last edited:

expressmailtome

Ripping up the road
Administrator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
4/15/10
Messages
49,992
Real Name
Matthew
Bump.
 

.........

Jogging around the block
Joined
6/13/21
Messages
703
I would wait for a few more days with the vinegar smell just in case. Good on you for building an aviary, great way to keep birds, and welcome to the forum :)
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
I have noticed that some white powdery stuff has appeared in places on the wire mesh I know stainless steel is the preferred wire to use but I could not get that anywhere so galvanized wire had to do. People have told me it would be ok to use.

I have pretty much every thing done, I put in the branches and stuff but I need to collect some more of the thinner willow branches from the park. A huge willow tree had fell down so I've been making use of the branches some are very think. Another thing I keep forgetting are the nest boxes, I'm making those from soda bottles which will hang in a corner of the aviary.
 

.........

Jogging around the block
Joined
6/13/21
Messages
703
I have noticed that some white powdery stuff has appeared in places on the wire mesh I know stainless steel is the preferred wire to use but I could not get that anywhere so galvanized wire had to do. People have told me it would be ok to use.

I have pretty much every thing done, I put in the branches and stuff but I need to collect some more of the thinner willow branches from the park. A huge willow tree had fell down so I've been making use of the branches some are very think. Another thing I keep forgetting are the nest boxes, I'm making those from soda bottles which will hang in a corner of the aviary.
I use galvanized netting too. I have not had a problem.
Yes having a good variety of widths with perches is great. I am not sure of these soda bottle nest boxes, I don't know the design so they could be fine, but if you can I'd say wooden finch specific nest boxes are a better option.
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
All the birds are in the aviary now. Its amazing to see them all flying about although there is a lot of pecking and chasing going on, I expect that this is the famous pecking order and things will settle. They have already taken to there nests I've made for them out of soda bottles, basically I just cut the soda bottles in half and stapled them all together so like a bee haive sort of thing. Then I stuffed each one with hay and hung them up. I put lots of thin branches in front of it so the birds can perch outside there nests if they want too. It was hilarious hearing one of them chirping inside one of the bottles :rofl:

I was a bit worried that they wouldn't be able to find there food or water. Six of them have located there food so I expect the other 4 will work it out. I need to make them a bird bath next. Its magical just seeing the aviary complete with all the birds in there. I can't help feeling that I could have put some more branches in there, because I wanted the birds to have plenty of space to fly around but from my observations so far they could probably do with some more branches.
 
Last edited:

Sparkles99

Biking along the boulevard
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
8/9/20
Messages
6,315
Location
Ontario, Canada
Any aviary pictures?!
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
As soon as I sort out either an SD card with free space on it or find my other camera I'll try get some photos done.

Some big fights have been going on in the aviary this morning, I'm hoping that all this fighting will resolve itself. I know its common for Zebra finches to be aggressive toward one another. Its really kicking off in there. I'll be monitoring the situation over the next few weeks and if there is no improvement or birds are getting injured from fighting then I'll remove nests and all nesting materials and I'll get some Gouldian finches to bread instead, I'll still hang on to the zebras I just wont breed those ones. Its early days so I guess its trial and error for now.
 
Last edited:

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Just an update... its not been so bad today. The birds didn't fight too aggressively so I think they'll be ok. My black cheeked finch is very lucky he has two females.
 

.........

Jogging around the block
Joined
6/13/21
Messages
703
Indeed they are feisty little birds, zebra finches. Often they just need to work out the pecking order and who's nest is who's, great that you have extra females.
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Here are some photos of the aviary, I apologize for the poor quality of the photos but I don't have a whole lot of light flowing through the living room due to huge trees outside blocking out most of my light. For some reason people here in the UK love to plant trees right in front of windows.

I like things to be as natural as possible, a couple of the finches have started there own little nest.

a1.jpg a2.jpg a3.jpg a4.jpg
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
A couple more...

This was built mainly with recycled wood. The cage that is inside I will take out but for now I've just left it in until I need it.

a5.jpg a6.jpg a7.jpg
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Its so relaxing watching them time goes by so quickly. I watch them in the mornings then I notice the time :eek:

I will need to make a day of it where I can spend it just watching my finches. Its better than TV. I'll be getting a couple more branches and I'm also picking up two canaries today which I'm very excited about. :)
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Indeed they are feisty little birds, zebra finches. Often they just need to work out the pecking order and who's nest is who's, great that you have extra females.
I'm acually short on females. I was suppose to have 5 males and 5 females but due to an accidental error I got six males and four females. With the black cheek finch having two females that leaves 5 males for two females, three of the males wont be getting any females so I may need to get a couple more hens. I'm seeing my supplier today to have a look at some birds so I could get a couple more zebra hens just to balance things out a bit more.
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Here are a couple photos of the black cheek finches nest that they are building. p21.jpg p22.jpg
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Some more birds for the aviary, two Canaries one is male and the other might be female. I made sure I picked up some extra zebra hens. I will leave them in the travel cage for an hour or so just so they settle after there long journey. They have food and water. I can't put them in the aviary just yet as its dark now and the other birds have gone to sleep and are nesting so its probably a good idea to wait until morning. I will leave the light on for the new birds for about an hour and a bit just so they can have something to eat and drink before they settle for the night. I'll dim the light before switching it off.

photo1.jpg photo2.jpg photo3.jpg
 

Sparkles99

Biking along the boulevard
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
8/9/20
Messages
6,315
Location
Ontario, Canada
Can’t wait to see them all integrated! I have a canary weakness. :laugh:
 

fashionfobie

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
1/4/19
Messages
5,246
Location
Qld, Australia
Real Name
Natalie
Overall I like your aviary size and the use of natural branches. It looks awesome.

I may remove the nests personally. Zebra finches are prolific breeders in captivity and with several pairs laying you can easily have many more birds in a short period of time. Without a plan of where to house the new babies it can get crowded quickly. :)
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
Overall I like your aviary size and the use of natural branches. It looks awesome.

I may remove the nests personally. Zebra finches are prolific breeders in captivity and with several pairs laying you can easily have many more birds in a short period of time. Without a plan of where to house the new babies it can get crowded quickly. :)
I'm building some extra cages to put the babies in and then I'm going to start selling them in pairs eventually.
 

fluff86

Walking the driveway
Joined
9/15/22
Messages
249
I'm building some extra cages to put the babies in and then I'm going to start selling them in pairs eventually.
Although on second thoughts it may be better to remove nests from the aviary once the finches have had there babies and select a few pairs for breeding in cages. I would really like to pair up the two black cheek finches but right now the male black cheek is already with two of the white hens. I'll leave things as they are for now and then once they have had there first lot of babies I start some rearranging and pairing.
 
Top