new birds, photos and all!

I got my birds!! I am so excited. I decided to go with only 3 pairs of finches, a pair of doves, and a canary for now. I may add another pair of finches later. They have PLENTY of room in the cage so far.

I got a pied male zebra who loves to sing, so we named him Piper (get it - Pied Piper...). Ahem. Anyway. We got an all-white zebra and I am not sure yet if it is a male or female. We named him/her Boo. We got a pair of white-headed nuns. I think they are both female so we may go get a male at some point. They remain nameless at this time. And the final pair of finches are societies - a chocolate one and a lighter one with a funny hairdo! The one with the crest is named Rufus and he LOVES to sing, which is how I knew he is a male. The other I am assuming female for now, and her name is Wren.

The doves are cute! Their names are Jonah and Jemma, which both mean "dove." The female was a little testy at first and sat in one of the food dishes and pecked anyone who got too close. I may have to give everyone a nest if they continue to roost in the food, LOL. (Of course, there are several food dishes available in the cage.)

And I got a frosted red-factor male canary. He sings very nicely and I have not seen him pick on the finches. I didn't get a good photo of him because he kept moving and my digital camera has a delay between when you press the button and when it actually takes the picture. I'll try again tomorrow.

Many of the photos are blurry because I was trying to take them without the flash (it reflected off the cage bars) and there wasn't enough light so the shutter stayed open longer and I couldn't hold the camera still enough. I'll try again tomorrow.

Everyone seemed to be adjusting, although the nuns pretty much hid in the bushes all evening. After the sun went down, I covered their cage.

The dogs went all nutty. I really hope they can adjust in the next week before I have to go back to work. Bonnie was pacing and crying and Nala was jumping at the gate. The cat that is afraid of the dogs and never seemed that interested in our mice actually dashed into the room toward the cage. My son intercepted him, the dogs went for the cat, and he clawed his way back out of the room. *sigh* The other cat has not investigated much, but with the cage covered the birds are all quiet. We should be in for a chaotic day tomorrow.

Here are photos.

This is Boo:



Here are the doves with Boo behind them:



This is one of the nuns before she started hiding:



Here we have some perch sitting going on:



More perch sitting:



And even more perch action:



This is Piper:



And another of Piper:



Here are Rufus (in back) and Wren:



And another:



And one more with Rufus in front (and a nun way in back):



And here is beautiful Wren all by herself:



This was the dogs' reaction:

 

Great pictures i love the combination of birds shows that not everything that is on the internet is true about not mixing species.
As i always say when placing differents breeds of birds in the same cage or aviary its trial and error but looks too me that all are doing fine and if there was going to be any problems them would have show themselves once all placed intogether.

So glad that they all get along gives you different tunes and sounds to listen to, I sit and watch and listen to my birds when i am stressed or wound up and they help me relax.

The pictures of the dogs investigating looks like they are thinking mmmm food that flys heheheheh.
Dogs adjust more quickly i used to have to tell mine off a few times but they soon realised the birds do not come out of the cage and they are not food.

I can let one of my cockatiels out of her cage and she runns straight over to mitzy and sits on her back and preens her fur and plays with the dogs ears which is a funny sight.

How to sex your white finch is by the beak colour only the males have a very bright red beak the females have a orange beak so you will be able to see the colour difference. From what i can see you have a female white there.

If she decides to breed and lay eggs with your pied male you will get pied and normal grey babies.

The problem with adding nest boxes is as soon as they are attached all birds will start to breed finchs will lay an egg literally 48hours after the nest is plced in the cage.

The bird with the funny hairdo is known as a crested society you can also get the crested zebra i have to agree they do look funny they look like there wearing a wig or someting hehehe.

Tell the sex of your society finch's Grasp a finch in your hand and turn it upside down. Open your hand. If the finch instantly takes flight, it is a male. If the finch lies on its back for a few seconds and then takes off, it is a female. Only the male sings and he can sing alot.


Good luck and keep us informed of all there progress..

Mike

 

I knew about the beaks in the white ones but all the ones at the store looked the same so I had no one to compare to! I haven't heard her sing so I think she is a female as you said. Wren answers Rufus - would a female do that? I'm not going to try catching her for at least a few days so the birds can settle in.

This morning I woke up and the sun was up so I got up. The birds were making wee noises under their cover and the cats were perched on the furniture staring at the cage. I took the cover off and the birds all erupted into song. Tesla is staring and Patches is twitching, but they don’t seem to be able to get over the gate. Maybe they won’t try that until later…

I left the dogs in their crates for now so I could see what the cats did. It’s going to be an interesting day. The doggies are going to lose their heads when they see and hear the birds.

The birds seem to be fine. The finches scatter when the doves fly. I hope the doves are okay in there. One is sitting on the bottom. I wonder if I should put something solid over part of the floor so the doves have a better place to sit down there.

Now Tesla is trying to find a way around the gate. Silly cat.

Here is the canary (Captain Jack Sparrow):



And the cats:

 

The cats look very interested in the birds which is normal for cats i suppose but chances are will have to be on your guard once the cats figure a way to get over to them.

My mums cats do not bother with birds one of them runs a mile if a bird flaps its wings lol.

You will find the doves take a little longer to adjust to there new enviroment.

When a male bird calls out the females usually respond but there song is totally different from tat of the male which you can probably tell the difference.

The males will start to sing the first sight of any light but i find it relaxing having all the different songs from all the different breeds.

You may also find that if the finch's want to breed they will lay there eggs in the food dish anything the female can sit in she will lay eggs in.

I love the red factors the fire finch is one of my favourite finch but my all time favourite is the zebra finch

Mike

 

I put their bath in and they are all swimming and making a nice mess, LOL. I'm not as worried about the cats. I don't think they will be able to get over the gate. The bad thing is, if they do I know they will not be able to get back out so they will be trapped in there! I don't think they can harm the birds, although they could scare them a lot.

I am more worried about the dogs. They are big enough if they hurl themselves at the gate we could have a big mess. They could REALLY scare the birds if they get close to the cage. Bonnie paces and whines and Nala keeps trying to jump up on the gate. Maybe I should work on some commands in the presence of the birds so they learn to ignore them?

I made a video tape this morning but I need to make some small clips I can post. I will try to get some audio up first so you can hear them sing!

 

At the moment they are something new for the dogs to investigate hopefully after a few days they will not be so bothered that they are there.

i can remember when i started with my birds again mitzy loved the sight of them and sat and glared at them all day long she even tried getting at the cages, Now she is not bothered by them if there singing gets on her nerves she leaves the room and goes and jumps on my bed.

Good luck and i think all will be ok in a few days..

Mike

 

Well the dogs are already starting to calm down so I think you're right and everything will turn out okay. I worry because our dogs do things like be angels for 3 months and then eat the carpet one day out of the blue. One time with the birds is one time too many, but I think they will be okay. The birds will be behind TWO gates when we are gone.

I have been carting the dogs around in the car with me as I run errands so they won't be left unattended, LOL.

I love my birds!!

 

Glad everything is calming down hopefully another few days and the cats and dogs will just see them as another member of the family and not bother with them.

It seems to be a day for good news as i have just candled my coclatiel eggs and 2 out of 3 so far are fertile so i should have baby tiels soon i cant wait.

I cant remember if i told you my gerbil gave birth to some more babies they now have there fur and have started to leave the nest the female is being such a good mum this time around which is probably because her and the male are in seperate tanks since the only thing she did last time was feed them and then went off to dig and play and left the male to keep them warm and clean them.

I will post pictures of them soon i have a post on the forum with pictures of my finch's and there baby who is now 9weeks old and alot of trouble to his parents lol..


Mike

 

Congrats on the cockatiels and gerbils! We raised a litter of mice (okay, well, the mousey mommy raised them) and it was so much fun! I loved those little guys!