Zebra Finch
The most commen pet finch is the Zebra Finch. They are very small and have beautiful colours.
The male (on the left in photo) has more colour than the females, the female (on the right) lack some features that the males have, for example their orange cheek patches, brown spotty wings and black chest. Zebra finches are more of an aviary bird as they are too small and fast to tame.
These birds are easy to look after, all you need is:
- 2 water dishes (1 drinking, 1 for bathing in)
- 1 food dish
- cage approximatly 30 inches long, 18 inches high and 18 inches wide is a good sized cage for a pair of finches.
Things in the cage:
- Sticks and shrubs
- wooden perches (all different hights and sized)
How to care for your finches
Finches are great to look at but as i have said above they are too small and too fast to tame or even let out of the cage.
If you have a cat in your house it is best to put more wire around your cage so that the spacing between the cage and the outside wire is about 1cm (so the cats claws can't reach the bird). Finches love to rest on perches but if you have too many they can't fly around and finches fly alot so i suggest 2-3 perches depending on the size of the cage. Zebra finches eat the usual 'finch mix' from a pet store. Zebra's eat alot because they fly and burn energy fast and so you wan't to make sure your finches have access to food and water at all times. They love to have a morning bath so you also need to have a shallow dish at the bottom of your cage. If you are going to have two finches and you don't want babies then you should get two males or two females because Zebra finches arn't fussy, they will make a nest anywhere at anytime like in their food dish, in the corner of the cage and they only need about 5 strands of matirial to make a nest so unless you are prepared for breeding Zebra finches, i suggest two males or two females. Zebra's can be loud sometimes so you need to be awear of that. One most important rule of having finches is that you never open the door of the cage unless prepared! Unless you have a big aviary that has a double door so when you open one and he/she escapes, well he can't get away because finches are escape artists and will find the slightest opening and fly away. Zebra finches fancy 1-2 little toys but don't always play, they can have things like little balls on the floor of the cage, beeds (make sure they aren't too small) etc this is optional though. I do recomend a Zebra finch for an aviary bird or just one in your house but sadly they can't be tamed.
Breeding finches
What you need to breed Zebra Finches:
- Nest box sutible for finches
- water
- food
- wooden perches
- Bath
- nesting material
To breed finches you need to be well prepared. You need a cage big enough for 1-20 birds, a nest box, strands of dried grasses, wood shavings and small leaves on the floor of the cage (they will pick them up to make their nest). Zebra Finches breed quite fast and will breed at anytime. They incubate their eggs for 12-18 days but the incubation period starts when the parents start sitting on the eggs which will often not happen until the 3rd or 4th egg is laid. If you see that an egg hasn't hatched within 20 days or more after the hatching date than consider it infertile (won't hatch at all!) so you should probly throw it out. The finches don't really care what they nest in, they will nest in wood boxes from pet shops, a milk carton, pipe and a open basket. If you don't want your finches to breed anymore than you need to take out all nesting mitirials and boxes, if they continue to lay eggs in food dishes and other stuff than you need to take the eggs and throw them away every thime the female lays a new one. That is all you really need to know, it is quite simple. Good Luck!
The male (on the left in photo) has more colour than the females, the female (on the right) lack some features that the males have, for example their orange cheek patches, brown spotty wings and black chest. Zebra finches are more of an aviary bird as they are too small and fast to tame.
These birds are easy to look after, all you need is:
- 2 water dishes (1 drinking, 1 for bathing in)
- 1 food dish
- cage approximatly 30 inches long, 18 inches high and 18 inches wide is a good sized cage for a pair of finches.
Things in the cage:
- Sticks and shrubs
- wooden perches (all different hights and sized)
How to care for your finches
Finches are great to look at but as i have said above they are too small and too fast to tame or even let out of the cage.
If you have a cat in your house it is best to put more wire around your cage so that the spacing between the cage and the outside wire is about 1cm (so the cats claws can't reach the bird). Finches love to rest on perches but if you have too many they can't fly around and finches fly alot so i suggest 2-3 perches depending on the size of the cage. Zebra finches eat the usual 'finch mix' from a pet store. Zebra's eat alot because they fly and burn energy fast and so you wan't to make sure your finches have access to food and water at all times. They love to have a morning bath so you also need to have a shallow dish at the bottom of your cage. If you are going to have two finches and you don't want babies then you should get two males or two females because Zebra finches arn't fussy, they will make a nest anywhere at anytime like in their food dish, in the corner of the cage and they only need about 5 strands of matirial to make a nest so unless you are prepared for breeding Zebra finches, i suggest two males or two females. Zebra's can be loud sometimes so you need to be awear of that. One most important rule of having finches is that you never open the door of the cage unless prepared! Unless you have a big aviary that has a double door so when you open one and he/she escapes, well he can't get away because finches are escape artists and will find the slightest opening and fly away. Zebra finches fancy 1-2 little toys but don't always play, they can have things like little balls on the floor of the cage, beeds (make sure they aren't too small) etc this is optional though. I do recomend a Zebra finch for an aviary bird or just one in your house but sadly they can't be tamed.
Breeding finches
What you need to breed Zebra Finches:
- Nest box sutible for finches
- water
- food
- wooden perches
- Bath
- nesting material
To breed finches you need to be well prepared. You need a cage big enough for 1-20 birds, a nest box, strands of dried grasses, wood shavings and small leaves on the floor of the cage (they will pick them up to make their nest). Zebra Finches breed quite fast and will breed at anytime. They incubate their eggs for 12-18 days but the incubation period starts when the parents start sitting on the eggs which will often not happen until the 3rd or 4th egg is laid. If you see that an egg hasn't hatched within 20 days or more after the hatching date than consider it infertile (won't hatch at all!) so you should probly throw it out. The finches don't really care what they nest in, they will nest in wood boxes from pet shops, a milk carton, pipe and a open basket. If you don't want your finches to breed anymore than you need to take out all nesting mitirials and boxes, if they continue to lay eggs in food dishes and other stuff than you need to take the eggs and throw them away every thime the female lays a new one. That is all you really need to know, it is quite simple. Good Luck!