Aviculturalists?.....

I didn't know you could do 'liberty' with Bengalese. I've only heard of it with Firefinches, Cubans and some softbills like Shama but the latter only when they are breeding in an aviary and therefore 'held' to it. (You can do it with budgerigars too, under the right conditions).

I've heard Cubans are social- but no personal experience.
 
might want to check the legality of having free-range exotic finches in Australia before heading that way ;)
 
Chlidonias said:
might want to check the legality of having free-range exotic finches in Australia before heading that way ;)
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Good point. I'm sure it would be illegal! It might well be in the UK too nowadays- I'm talking many years ago when I kept foreign birds.
 
hi everyone
the insect thing with finches can be a problem to keep up but there is a insect suplement that i have heard is just as good, but i have had trouble getting my birds to eat it.
and on the cuban topic i have never heard of cubans being held more than one pair per aviary, and in my experiense they can be extremely agressive to each other. we had two pairs next to each other in our aviarys that would just fight each other all day so we had to seperate them to stop them and since then we have never held them in the same aviray or in avirays next to each other.
sorry for an spelling mistakes.
 
I love Cuban finches, flashy little birds with what the old bird-books would describe as "a charming song", but I'm with brad09; I was never able to keep more than one pair per aviary when I had them.

One of the old bird books mentioned above said that fruit fly and other tiny insects could be provided for finches by putting old fruit peelings in an ice cream container with bird wire across the top to stop the birds getting into the mess but letting them catch insects which will swarm around it. Dunno if it works, but sounds goods in theory.
 
Parrot chick raising ability.

I've never heard of Macaws (or Parrots generally) that refuse to raise their chicks past a certain age just because of repeated Human intervention. There are plenty of cases where pairs fail to rear their young, or break their eggs in the nest because they are just bad or inexperienced parents, but usually they improve with their rearing abilities over time.
Often with very rare species they are given the eggs or young of commoner species to learn with, while their own eggs are taken for incubation or fostering.
 
Pertinax said:
I've never heard of Macaws (or Parrots generally) that refuse to raise their chicks past a certain age just because of repeated Human intervention.
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About 20 years ago I was told this was the case for Eclectus Parrots in Australia, and someone also suggested to me King Quail too. I remember at the time thinking it was a bit of a stupid idea, and I haven't heard the story since then for either species.

:p

Hix
 
are we talking 'human intervention' as in the instinct to raise young has been selectively bred out of them due to constant cross fostering?

i have heard this is true of a number of species in australia. california quail and red siskins come to mind. there are some responsible breeders who refuse to cross foster their birds and are thus selectively breeding back the instinct. i know of a guy who is doing just that with siskins.

however i have never heard of the problem with parrots.
 
With Eclectus it wasn't cross-fostering I was told about, it was removing chicks for hand-rearing.

:p

Hix
 
hi i have been told by countless breeders that u need to let young pairs rear one or two nests fully. Or the parrents wont raise there babys past a certain point. i know alot of breeders let there big parrots like electus parrots rear every second or third nest to prevent this. And i have a hen electus at the moment that will not rear he chicks past 8 weeks. she just leaves the nest when they get to this age. we have tried just about every trick we can to get her to raise her chicks past this point but she wont, and my birds are fed friut and veg daily and would make up bout 50 % of there diet. so its note diet and the only thing we can think of is that her previouse owner took the chicks at this time when she started breeding and didnt let her raise them. ( she is the most aggressive female parrot i have seen or heard of when it comes to protecting the babies ).
 
firefinch fledglings....

great surprise!

came home from work and found two fledgling african fire finches hopping round the aviary floor i didn't even know i had!

the last few weeks i've been completely over-worked and havent been paying my birds much attention. they usually get lebanese cucumber daily but i had run out and until yesterday they had spent the best part of a week without. even more odd - waxbills are notorious "live food only' chick rearers - i have placed a few mealworms in the last couple of weeks but again, they had been without for at least 5 days and the firefinches never seem to show much notice of the mealies anyway.

guess the babies were either raised on seed or the finches found enough bugs amongst the aviary plants!

this is my first breeding success. the first step in what is clearly going to be a lifelong obsession!
 
Good on you phoenix! You're hooked now mate!
You strike me as being a "finch" type person rather than a "parrot" person.
Parrot people want something big and flashy, and don't particularly mind that it's almost impossible to house parrots in natural surroundings.
Finch people's birds don't have to be big and flashy, and their owners like the fact that their birds can be kept in groups and in planted aviaries.

Incidentally, I got into an argument with a friend-of-a-friend today over my birdkeeping.
It's just a personal ethic of mine that I will not sell my birds to be kept permanently in a cage - I only sell to people with aviaries. Consequently, I've never made much money from my birds, but that's OK, money is not what it's about. My aquaintance however tells me I'm a hypocrite. As far as she is concerned, a bird is either free or it's a captive.
 
thankyou ara.

you are indeed right. i have always wanted birds - but had zero interest in keeping them unless i could provide lots space to stretch their wings and a naturalistic environment with lots of plants. i read about all bird keeping for months whilst planning my aviary, decided to include some finches - then quickly fell in love with them and switched to only wanted them exclusively!

they tick off absolutely all my requirements and bar the occasional melodic song and constant soothing tweets - they are very quiet little things.

its also a joy to kick back with a coffee and just watch them flutter around together amongst the foliage.

so, i don't think you are a hypocrite. i positively hate birds in cages and held off the temptation to ever get them until i made enough money and had the space to invest in something proper. to bring it back to zoos - i've never bought into that whole "its not the amount of space its the quality" argument. its as if the proponents of this argument refuse to believe that spacious enclosures cannot include all the things that a small "quality" enclosure can. but more importantly - it ignores the fact that space adds enrichment in itself.
 
phoenix said:
great surprise!

came home from work and found two fledgling african fire finches hopping round the aviary floor i didn't even know i had!

this is my first breeding success. the first step in what is clearly going to be a lifelong obsession!
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Congratulations mate! Welcome to parenthood.

After 40+ years of breeding animals I have never lost that thrill when new life is created.

We have a new B&G Macaw chick hatching in the incubator right now and we're both intrigued with the way that it is kicking and screaming in it's efforts to get out of egg and get started on this life business.
 
thanks steve!

how are those ruddy shelducklings doing?

i would love to see a list of the birds you have at the zoo.
 
phoenix said:
thanks steve!

how are those ruddy shelducklings doing?

i would love to see a list of the birds you have at the zoo.
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From 5 eggs - one vanished, one hatched and duckling vanished, 3ducklings pulled and hand raised, 1 culled as substandard [twisted upper mandible, droopy wings etc] and two are doing wonderfully well. Now that we have started breeding we are keen to maintain a high standard of bird. The remaining ducklings will be paired up with outside stock of similar quality - either here at DDZ or at other properties.

Bird list will be on ARAZPA Census and Plan when we are accepted into that Association!!
 
Steve Robinson said:
From 5 eggs - one vanished, one hatched and duckling vanished, 3 ducklings pulled and hand raised, 1 culled as substandard [twisted upper mandible, droopy wings etc] and two are doing wonderfully well. Now that we have started breeding we are keen to maintain a high standard of bird. The remaining ducklings will be paired up with outside stock of similar quality - either here at DDZ or at other properties.
Click to expand...
would I be right in assuming the original founder stock in Australia is just a few birds then?
 
phoenix said:
great surprise!

this is my first breeding success. the first step in what is clearly going to be a lifelong obsession!
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Congragulations Phoenix, I love finches too and when I hade the space had a lovely planted aviary for them.
I don't like seeing birds in small cages either however my 3 budgies are a suprise. They live in a typical small budgie cage but I let them have the flight of the house during the day. They choose if they want to be in or out as they like. So often I will come home from work and find them sitting quietly inside the cage, generally an outing for an hour every morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon seem to be all they seem to want.
 
Yep, cages are fine if the bird(s) are let out for a fly around - then the cage becomes "home", a retreat and not just a prison.

Just to change tack for a minute; remember a year or so back someone claimed to see a ad for a hyacinth macaw "free for adoption" in Australia? I can top that; I just saw an ad for "Toco Toucans $800 each available in Sydney"!

Steve Robinson, How many can I put you down for?:D
 
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