What we enjoy about our birds is that by having a colony in a beautiful oak aviary, we are able to watch them constantly and they are the focal point of our home and a conversation piece. The colony aviary allows us to have a more natural approach to bird care.
Having a colony aviary is not for everyone. A large factor with Lady Gouldians is their genetics. With colony breeding one can never be 100% positive of the parents of their birds. We are fastidious with removing relatives, therefore eliminating the possibility of inbreeding. Aside from that we let the birds choose their mates. It’s easy to distinguish paired couples as they occupy a nest together while keeping out other birds, so while we are highly certain of the parents, we could never be sure if an egg was in fact fertilized by a different male. One day my husband and I will expand to a bigger home and at that time we can set up specific breeder pairs during the breeding season, then back to the aviary for the off season.
BIRD CARE
This is the protocol we use to care for our birds. We are offering our care practices for informational purposes, as when taking home a new bird it is always best to try and keep their environment as consistent as possible. By telling you what we do, hopefully it will assist you in making your birds transition to their new home as smooth as possible. Many of our buyers are experienced with these birds, so we’re in no way trying to undermine their practices. For those few people that are novice or always looking for new ideas, hopefully this will be helpful. We’ve tried many products, supplements, sprouters, etc., and we have slowly tweaked things until we found a smooth and flawless balance. The end result is healthy beautiful birds that have been parent raised in turn raise their own young.
Whenever bringing home new birds, we advise a strict quarantine. There is always a possibility one or more of the birds could be a carrier for an illness your existing birds may not have immunities for. Even though the birds are healthy upon leaving Hobby Finch
We recommend 30 days of quarantine in separate cages in separate rooms of the house. Take care of your existing birds first, and thoroughly wash your hands before tending to the new birds. During this time, watch your new birds carefully for signs of illness like puffed feathers, soiled vents, runny eyes, etc. If symptoms arise, seek medical treatment from an avian veterinarian immediately. Birds do not like to show they're ill, so by the time they display symptoms, they are usually very sick. If the birds appear healthy and are adjusting fine, now is a good time to treat for airsac mites, scaly face and intestinal worms. We use Iverlux and Worm Away by Morning Bird and Scatt by Vetafarm. Also during quarantine would be a good time to treat with Probiotics as they can negate ill effects associated with the stress of relocation. If after 30 days both your existing birds and the new birds seem to be healthy we then recommend bringing the quarantine cage into the same room as the existing bird(s) but still keeping them in separate cages for 14 additional days. During the next 2 weeks the birds have the opportunity to hear each other and experience what their new surroundings will be, without actually being introduced into the new settings. When it’s time to introduce the birds together, spend a lot of time observing for signs of illness once again. At this time we recommend putting all birds on Probiotics once again as the introduction of the new birds can be stressful.
BIRD CARE
We've found over the years that less can be best when raising these beauties. We’ve tried many things; supplements, sprouters, seed mixes, etc., and we have slowly tweaked things until we found a smooth and flawless balance. The end result is healthy beautiful finches that are parent raised and raise their own young.
Substrate:
Our floor substrate is Equine Fresh, 100% pine pellets. This substrate is super absorbent, mold resistant and 100% natural. And at $7.00 for a 40 pound bag, you can’t go wrong! Quicrete play sand also makes a great substrate. On the floor of our aviary are two large potted plants and a hibiscus tree. Bird safe and very hardy, they give the birds some natural terrain to forage through and of course, poop on. In the summer we bring the plants outside and rinse them to prevent fecal matter build up, in the winter, the shower works great.
Temperature: Our aviary is indoors, so the temperature for the birds is whatever temperature our house is. We keep it around 74’ F. We have a ceramic heat emitter affixed in a metal dome fixture in each aviary. It’s important to point out that ceramic heat emitters are heat lamps without light. So you can provide your birds with heat 24/7 without disrupting their sleep. We’ve noticed during stressful periods the finches seek out the heat as needed. Heat Emitters are also available as needed for hospital cages and/or quarantine birds.
Lighting: Our lighting consists of 8 feet long full-spectrum fluorescents, they are made by Philips and the color is cool white. Full spectrum lighting assists in the absorption of vitamins, which is obviously a huge benefit for all indoor birds. The full spectrum lighting also shows off the magnificent color of our finches. Birds are able to see spectrums humans cannot. Proper lighting is essential for breeding because the birds can see the colors and subtle nuances displayed by birds of the opposite sex. Also lighting time is a large factor, they need an appropriate amount of daylight in order to be content and successfully breed. We follow the patterns of natural daylight and have our lights fade on and off around the same time as sunrise and sunset.
Nests and nesting material: We have an assortment of nests in the aviary and have found the birds frequent them all. For breeding and baby rearing however, our finches prefer a wood box. They’ll take pretty much anything we put in there to build a nest with, their favorite being coconut fiber. The back of our aviary is stuffed with wood fiber and we were surprised when some finches started nesting back there! It occupies their minds and they have fun making little caverns. It’s something they would do in the wild, so we are happy to be seeing them do it in the aviary.
Beaks and Nails: Our perches are covered in sand paper covers, cuttlebone and lava stone are available at all times. Due to this, other than occasional trimming it is for the most part not required. If required we use a sharp pair of cuticle nippers; carefully trimming the nail just short of the quick and trimming any overhang on beaks. Bleeding can occur from both sources and finches have very little blood to use, always use caution when trimming.
VITAMINS:
We are avid users of Morning Bird products. During one of out routine visits to our avian vet for a ‘random finch check-up’, the vet informed us that even water soluble vitamins lose their potency in water and advised us to sprinkle vitamins into the bird seed instead. We follow the guideline we’ve created below to be sure the finches are getting a nice balance of vitamins.
Monday & Friday: Hearty Bird Vitamin and Mineral Formula
Wednesday & Saturday: Feather Fast
WATER:
Every morning our birds get fresh water in dishes which are hung at waist level in the aviary. The sizes of the dishes are conducive to drinking and bathing. We’ve always speculated that the fluoride, additives and other minerals found in tap water would not be comparable to what they’d be drinking in the wild. Due to this we purchased an RO DI Reverse Osmosis Pur Water Filter System and use that water for the birds. The filter is designed to take water back to its most pure form. We have to say that we gave our birds tap water for over five years and noticed zero ill effects. So please don’t be concerned that your water may not be sufficient, we assure you, it is. We add the following supplements to their water because they come in liquid form:
Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday – Calcium Plus, Liquid Iodine
During periods of stress and/or molt, we tailor these products as necessary. We allow bath time all the time with water dishes remain in the aviary 24/7 giving the birds’ free range of water. We’ve found they’re smart enough to figure out when they should/should not get wet. The only time we pull water is if we need to medicate, this way when they get the medicated water, they take it more readily.
FOOD :
Our finches devour Herman Brothers’ EM Specialty Finch Blend. It contains japanese millet, canary seed, siberian millet, finch millet, white millet, steel cut oats, red millet, thistle, flax, rape, anise and sesame seed. We used to spend a fortune making our own mixes then we started buying this in bulk, making up
That being said, for over five years we fed our finches finch seed from various local pet stores and never had any problems. We just found in the end it was more cost effective for us to purchase seed this way because we go through so much. If it’s easier for you to visit your local petstore, we’ve used Ecotrition 8-in-1 Finch Seed Blend and Forti-Diet Pro Health Finch with great results.
TREATS:
Our finches LOVE:
- Nemeth Farms Golden Sunburst Millet
- Diced fresh pineapple
- Diced fresh apple
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Shredded carrots
- Shredded mixed cheese
- Kale
- Hard-boiled eggs, mashed up shell and all
- Scrambled eggs
- Egg shells – we save ours, rinse and crush them
- Hi-cal grit mixed with charcoal, Hatched and F-vite
- Bread (12 grain) keeps them occupied for a while
- Birdie Greens & EM finch seed sprouted
in a hanging platform feeder
- Fresh egg food
We hope this information was helpful! Please feel free to contact us!
Thank-you,
Kimberly and John Sasala
bravenet.com