New finch owner, help.

[freak4feathers]

:D Hi all! I became a finch owner by accident. If you belive in accidents! Anywho...A male finch found his way to my door. He is a Zebra Finch, and he is VERY fiesty, and cute. I got him a little girl, and he immediatly started showing her around his pad. He acctually showed her where the food was,(he flew down to the food, looked up at her and told her, come here!) then he did the same with the water, and after a few hours they were obvioulsy in love! Very cute. I have raised cockatiels, and conures. But never owned a finch. Last nite he seemed to be tired, in the sense that he sat and slightly fluffed, and when I got close to check him out he is squinting. Still doing it this a.m., and yet he is eating, drinking, and going where no finch has gone before! lol. So is he getting sick? Do finches get eye bugs? Can't see anything and he seems to be "off" only just a tad. The eye thing has me worried. Don't want to lose him, I'm already in love!
Called a place I got the number off of your board, and am going to purchase(sp) the Herb mix for helping them to self medicate. In the mean time, any ideas? And they are already putting seed and nesting materials into the teardrop nest I got them, are they going to breed so easily? Or do they nest just for the heck of it? What are the best nesting materials, and if they lay eggs how many is average? And a good breeding book to purchase? Any info would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[Joel]

Welcome Freak!

If he was out in the wild he could have caught anything. Best to take to an A.V. but if ya won't do that then attach a ceramic heat lamp which produces no light, to the side of the cage next to a perch. Feed a good diet, clean fresh water twice a day in a glass or stainless steel shallow bowl.
Feed spray millet, brocolli, well washed & crisp Romaine Lettuce, a quality fresh finch mix and cuttlebone. Some eggfood, a piece of an ear of corn (very fresh). Purchase a quality F.S. Light and use a decent sized cage with wire grating on the bottom IMO.

Buy some coconut fibre for nesting material or if ya have Bahia grass growing in your yard ya can use that too. Where do ya live if I may ask?

About 4-5 eggs are average. Be prepared to handfeed if ya must or find someone NOW who will if you run into trouble.

Feel his little chest to see if breastbone is protruding much and check for diareah. Make sure he is actually hulling the seeds and eating the inside and not just mouthing them. Look very closely in/under his feathers for teeny weeny little mites.

WWW.AVIANPUBLICATIONS.COM for books.

[freak4feathers]

ok, gave some beautiful fresh washed romaine lettuce, and a beautiful peice of washed broc. Looking for my heat lamp, no light, and have to get cuttle bone and eggfood tommorow. Now what is a F.S. light,(full spectrum?) and at the end of your sentence regaurding the cage bottom you wrote IMO? Live in Nothern Calif. I can tell you he is hulling the seeds, and is absoulutly attacking the greens I just put in there!!! hope that, this, and a warming lamp will make him feel better. Also not sure I want to handle him just yet, only because if he is not feeling well, I do not want to stress him more. But I can tell you he is not thin. Can't I get a "thingy" to hang on the side of the cage that will get rid of mites if he/they have them? Also aparently the babys can be hand raised and do they acctually become friendly, like my conures and cockatiels? That would be so cool! I did not "hatch" my birds, got them when they were still not even totally covered with pinners, and hand fed them, so not familiar with the acctual hatching proceedures. His poop is firm but mostly white.....
thank you sooooo much. cant wait to hear more.

[Joel]

Correction on one thing I said. I think I gave ya the wrong name of the grass to use for nesting material. Will check that for ya.

IMO = In My Opinion.

You can make your own eggfood if ya want or just give well done scrambled eggs or 10 minute boiled eggs with crushed up eggshell. Take away after about an hour & throw away.

Right on the F.S. Lighting. Read back on our posts a couple days ago on that subject or type in Full SPECTRUM LIGHTING IN OUT SEARCH FEATURE HERE AND READ IT ALL. aLSO GO TO THE LINKS PROVIDED ON THE SUBJECT & READ ALL THAT TOO......Oops, sorry for the caps, just looked up.

No, don't buy those mite protectors, some people say they are toxic to the birds? Just check visually for them or put a white piece of towel or bedsheet in there all crinkled up and examine between the creases in the morning to see if ya see any mites. If they crawl on you, even if ya can't see them you will feel the itching & crawling sensation.

Feeding baby finches can get old quickly, ya have to do it every two hours in the very begining and almost every 3-4 hrs afterwards and keep them real warm all the time. It is no fun getting up during the night to handfeed, trust me. Yes, they can become quite tame if handfed but usually wind up losing the tameness if you keep with other birds.

Originally Posted by freak4feathers

ok, gave some beautiful fresh washed romaine lettuce, and a beautiful peice of washed broc. Looking for my heat lamp, no light, and have to get cuttle bone and eggfood tommorow. Now what is a F.S. light,(full spectrum?) and at the end of your sentence regaurding the cage bottom you wrote IMO? Live in Nothern Calif. I can tell you he is hulling the seeds, and is absoulutly attacking the greens I just put in there!!! hope that, this, and a warming lamp will make him feel better. Also not sure I want to handle him just yet, only because if he is not feeling well, I do not want to stress him more. But I can tell you he is not thin. Can't I get a "thingy" to hang on the side of the cage that will get rid of mites if he/they have them? Also aparently the babys can be hand raised and do they acctually become friendly, like my conures and cockatiels? That would be so cool! I did not "hatch" my birds, got them when they were still not even totally covered with pinners, and hand fed them, so not familiar with the acctual hatching proceedures. His poop is firm but mostly white.....
thank you sooooo much. cant wait to hear more.

[freak4feathers]

COOL thanks so much, he is not doing the eye thing now, maybe just needed his greens. Will keep u posted on them both. I will also do like u said and read back a few days worth of posts. ttfn :D

[singing_wings]

Is it possible he was just sleeping?Most birds will fluff up and squint there eyes when they are sleppy. As long as he is eating and all looks good hopefully he is better. Very few domestic birds get mites. If you think he might have them place a white cloth in the cage and if you see little red spots on the cloth the next day..you have mites. They have a mite spray for birds. Some people say you can hanga fly catcher (the kind that looks like sticky unrolled film) close to the cage and it will get rid of the mites. We have never had problems with mites the whole time we have raised birds. We do dose our birds with SCATT at least once a year just to be safe.

Yes, handfeeding finches is lots of work. You can tame a young finch out of the nest without handfeeding if you have the patience. I have tamed Java finches without handfeeding them. It just takes Routine and patience.

[desertrose984]

you can also use a mite spray called A.I.L avain insect liquidator