Our Story...

Hobby Finch Ohio is owned by me, Kimberly and my Husband John.  We live in Ashtabula, Ohio.  I graduated from Youngstown State University and in 2005 landed a great job.  I worked a lot and didn’t have time for friends or family, so aside from work I focused on my pets.  Then one day I saw an ad for a bird fair in Youngstown Ohio and since I was off that day I decided to go.  I found my first two Lady Gouldian finches, an OH-WB-YB hen and an OH-PB-NB Cock.  I got them both for less than $100 and happily took my new pets home.  I named them Qubert and Quigley.  I set them up together in a nice cage, and Qubert courted Quigley and they just loved each other but never had any babies.  This was no skin off my nose, I wanted them as pets, so the lack of babies was actually a blessing. 

Enter John, (a high school friend) in 2007.  We immediately hit it off after catching up on the 10 year gap between high-school and the present.  John took an instant liking to my beautiful finches and I think they did the same for him, because before we knew it, Bert and Quigs were raising babies!  John accredits it to the extra attention since someone was home more, but I always say they saw us being happy and figured out how to go from there.  We soon needed to upgrade to a larger flight aviary.  We began frequenting bird fairs whenever possible.  Before we knew it, it was time to double our aviary size, so we bought a second cage and affixed them together. 

In 2008 we bought nine birds from a breeder in NC.  Upon arrival it was obvious one was very ill.  During strict quarantine and many vet visits, we lost all but two of the birds from him and eight of our own.  It was like starting over from scratch.  We learned our lesson the hard way, cheap birds aren't the best birds.  Since then we follow strict quarantine guidelines and we ONLY buy from reputable breeders, which is not easy when you're as far from civilization as we are.

In September of 2008, John and I married.  In January 2009 we find out I’m pregnant – yay! Guess now the birds were showing us how it’s done!  Then misfortune strikes.  On May 2nd, 2009 at 5 months 4 days pregnant my water broke.   I Was hospitalized and on June 5th I gave birth to Gabriel, our 1 pound 12 ounce beautiful son.  Everything we’ve always wanted.  On August 23rd, at 11 weeks and 3 days old, Gabriel passed away.  He never made it home, all of his life was spent in the NICU.

When we originally went to the hospital it was very harrowing, we were over an hour away from home and the doctors told us most women that have a pre-term rupture of membrane like I did lose the baby within the first 24-48 hours.  John was afraid to leave my side.  We left the pets to fend for themselves...  The cats we knew would be fine, but the birds?  As much as I hate to say it, they were the least of our concerns.  They were in a small quarantine cage because we had just brought them to our new house, we were actually in the process of setting up their aviary when my water broke.   When we finally asked a friend to go care for them, nine had passed.  We were upset, but they were something we’d worry about at another time.  We did learn from our lesson though and we have two backup caretakers in place in case of any emergencies.

Since Gabriel’s passing, our lives have been in turmoil.  One thing has changed though and We’re taking the birds more seriously.  We bought a gorgeous oak aviary, it’s eight feet long, three feet deep and six and a half feet tall!  We have very happy birds, raising lots of babies.  Lets hope this continues!

So that’s our story in a nutshell.