I’ve named them Bogie (boy) and Bacall (girl). They’re very cute; since I got them home a few hours ago they’ve been bouncing all around their cage “eeping” at each other. Now, I don’t want to breed them so no nest, right? And one website recommended giving them leftover egg shells (rinsed and nuked to kill germs) for calcium. How many egg shells will they go through? Can I leave them in until they’re gone or do I need to remove them if they haven’t eaten them after a certain time? And if I give them egg shells do they still need a cuttlebone? It also mentioned that they like to take baths; I bought a little birdie bath tub, but do I leave it in the cage all the time or just for an hour or two a day or what? And what’s the best way to tame them? I don’t want them loose in the apartment, but I’d like to be able to reach in and pet them.
Any advice, tips, anecdotes, etc., will be greatly appreciated!
I had a pair several years ago when I was a kid. The only real suggestions I have are when you try to tame them, go slowly, and work with one finch at a time. You may consider even having a “training cage” so you don’t have to worry about the other one slipping past your arm and getting out. The other suggestion, well, it may not be too helpful, but I found it fun. I recorded their cheeping and then would play it back to them. They loved it - they must not have recognized themselves because they would just go crazy meeping back and forth.
I had a pair, male and female, when I was a kid. The petstore (yeah, I know, I was young and didn’t know better) told me that they wouldn’t breed without an aviary. They were wrong, and they had one baby, named Bill Clinton as he was hatched on election day. Though Ren, the female, laid copious amounts of eggs, they only had the one. I do think there is SOME merit to what the store told me, but it wasn’t a big deal since I could deal with three birds just as easily as two. I never gave mine eggshells, though they had a cuttlebone to cut their beaks on. They love millet as a treat, which you can find in most pet stores and feed stores as well. Mine liked a bit of cooked egg, and sometimes chicken.
I always liked the noises they made - they sounded like tiny seagulls and were always active and happy. Since I had Bill from birth, he would sometimes sit on my finger, though the other two never got that tame.
Have fun with them! I miss having birds, but I don’t have time to have any more pets than I already do (two gerbils and a hedgehog).
Do you have any other birds? If not, I’d like to add the usual anal-retentive new bird owner warnings:
No Teflon. Teflon kills birdies much faster than it slowly kills people. No scented candles. No oven cleaner. No glade, air fresheners, etc. etc. you get the picture. Think “canary in coal mine”: they have sensitive little respiratory systems.
No avocado or chocolate.
There, I feel better.
Enjoy your finches! One of my favorite things about Belgium was the obsession they have for little birds-- often in a building courtyard they’ll have a big aviary of finches and canaries and such, which is a lovely thing.
Oh, and about the bath - I would just give them a dish of warm water whenever I cleaned their cage. If you leave it in all the time, they will just poop in it and it will get really gross. They splash a lot too, but they love it!
If you find that they are trying to bathe in their water dish, then give them more bath-time, but I still wouldn’t leave a dish in their at all times.
Thanks, badbadrubberpiggy (love the username, BTW); I wasn’t sure about the birdbath thing. I’ll put their bathtub in the cage tomorrow when my daughter gets home from school and we’ll see what they do.
capybara, I once had a parakeet when I was a kid (and a hamster and a ferret and a pair of rabbits and some goats and a crow and cats and dogs and three burros, but I digress) and I knew about the aerosol sprays; can you tell me more about the Teflon and the candles? The way I thought I understood it, Teflon is only a danger if you let a pan boil dry and continue heating on the stove, and then only if the birds are in the same room. As far as candles go, can I continue to burn them in, say, the bathroom, or any other room Bogie and Bacall aren’t in? Or are they verboten throughout the house?
liirogue, unfortunately I lack both camera and sufficient know-how to post pictures online. They’re cute little buggers, though. I’ve already noticed that whenever Bacall seems to feel like she needs some space, she’ll peck Bogie on the foot until he moves over.
Well, yeah, I’d just worry about the stuff in the same air space. Some of us have small houses. With the Teflon, it’s only especially bad if it’s scratched or, yes, if it gets left on to burn. But, of course, no one ever INTENDS to leave it on to burn. So just for safety’s sake we have a moratorium on the stuff.
Oh, also there are these like metallic bags you can cook turkeys in-- another bad one.
Well, I gave them some warm water in their bathtub this morning. They hopped up on the edge, looked at the water, looked at me, then took a drink and flew back to their perch. So they’ve still got little dirty birdy feet. I also gave them some eggshell, and they loved that. They didn’t get any of my egg, though, because it had salt and pepper and cheese on it.
Thanks for all the help, guys! Bogie and Bacall say thank you, too (or they would if they could say anything besides “eep”). Just one more thing; can somebody tell me more about grit? I’m using corncob litter in the floor of their cage, and they’re either eating it or competing to see who can fling it farthest across the room, I’m not sure which. Do I need to offer them a seperate source of grit or will the litter I’m using suffice?
I used to use grit paper - it’s basically a piece of waxed paper with grit stuck to it. They can’t fling it or mess it up, really. Also, you can buy tubes of grit paper, which fit over perches and are good for keeping their nails trimmed.
I also gave them some eggshell, and they loved that. They didn’t get any of my egg, though, because it had salt and pepper and cheese on it.