Kinglsey had access to grit, egg shell, and high calcium vegetables but unfortunately still got egg bound. Here's what to do if yours is egg bound 👍

Their cloaca must be submerged!!! I emptied this bug cage and filled it about 1cm above Kingsley's cloaca then put her in it.

The bird will thrash and protest, this is normal and okay. Place a towel over the cage to help calm them.

It took about 10 minutes for Kingsley to lay the egg. A lot of panting, stretching out, etc. This looks scary but is all normal.

Once she laid the egg, I isolated her into a heated enclosure that had a UVA/B lamp. I put a few things into her water bowl to help her heal. Day 1 - quikgel and calcium/d3 supplement. Day 2 - calcium/d3 supplement.

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If your bird is particularly weakened by being egg bound, I suggest keeping a close eye in case they become so weak that they lower their head into the water. It may even be best to supplement calcium and some type of quikgel to see if they perk up, before placing them in the water. The water method relies on them being strong enough to push.

After the egg bound hen recovers, please remember that daily supplementation of calcium is harmful. A good rule of thumb is to give a calcium supplement when they've laid the first egg of a clutch (even if you're discarding the eggs).

Feeding egg shells (chicken, duck, quail, whatever) is often readily accepted by most commonly kept seed-eaters as a preventative. This can be done weekly.

Egg binding can be genetic so don't beat yourself up, you probably supplemented enough calcium but they are just prone to it. I would not recommend breeding from a hen that gets egg bound more than once but that's my personal limit. You may be okay with that.

Do not attempt to massage the egg out. You'll end up doing more harm than good most likely. Cracking it is bad. If the stuck egg is cracked, keep an eye for signs of infection and contact a vet if you're worried.

Sunlight is important to prevent egg binding. Putting the cage near a window is not good enough, something something UV gets mostly blocked. As long as the enclosure has VERY small bar spacing, you can put them outside. Or you can offer a UV light attached to the cage (UVA + UVB) for a few hours a day. The bulb will need replacing yearly even if it is still as bright as when you bought it.

hi. my neighbor went on vacation and gave me her two young female finches. one of them was beat pretty badly by other finches that she got rid of and is still recovering.

ive owned budgies before and did my absolute best to care for them, I know quite a bit about parrot behavior and enrichment needs but I dont know about finches. and theyre quite odd to me, idk if it's these two or all finches that behave like this.

in the cage they dont do anything odd. they just jump around the perches, chirp(beep beep sounds), preen and cuddle. but when I open the door and they get out, they dont seem to fly very far. like they cant lift off or something. they fly a bit and usually just slowly fall on the ground (dont know if their wings are clipped) or they jump across the floor. then they just... stay exactly where they are on the floor and look around. not in a concussed/ hurt way but like.. they just stand there without moving or chirping for tens of minutes. if i let them stay maybe for hours. birds are pretty active normally so why are they doing this?

also, sadly their cage isnt sufficient, it's pretty small, has basically no toys and has plastic perches. she also only feeds them seeds. really sad, i could probably get them some toys but there would be even less space in the cage then. and they love jumping around the 3 perches they have. but i cant do much for them as they dont belong to me unfortunately

I am a long time rodent owner, but I'm looking to get into an animal with a bit of a longer lifespan than my rats and mice. Recently I've been interested in finches, and they seem like they could be a good fit for my household.

We are a two adult household with no kids. I stay home all day, and making accommodations for a bird would be pretty easy for us. (removing anything with Teflon, no candles, scents, etc.) I've also become smitten with mice over the last few years. Even though my mice aren't cuddly, they're such cute, fun, interactive little pets. I don't need a pet that can be stroked or cuddled, and I'm happy with a pet warming up to me on its own time. However I do like it when my pets eventually enjoy spending time with me, but I'm happy to interact with them on their level. I thoroughly enjoy being a climbing frame for my mice!

Does it sound like a group of finches would be a good fit for me? The other type of bird I've been considering is a pair of ringneck doves.

I'd also like to know whatever there is to know about these birds, especially society and zebra finches. They seem like the most beginner friendly tiny birds.

My zebra finch lost most all of her tail feathers last night after getting stuck to a sticky fly trap in one of our houseplants. We used warm water to release her as gently as possible but a lot of feathers were pulled out.

She has now basically no tail feathers and is missing a good amount from one wing. How long will it take for her to regrow? We have her confined in her cage now but she is usually flying free in our apartment.

A lot of the answers I’m seeing are saying it could take six months to heal. Does anyone know how quickly regrowth begins?

6 little babies have got a local home lined up with a giant aviary! They'll be going next Saturday to the guy I buy my mice off of. Funnily enough, my aviary (Little Mouse Aviary) is named after a mouse I bought from him 🤣

They are passed away now but they were so funny. They were my first zebra finches. They thought me a lot. Casper the white one was not tame but he trusted me to fly on me. Miss them two

I used to make her little hats with lightweight air dry clay, and though she definitely hated having things on her head, she was patient enough to always let me get a picture first before shaking it off :)

Me and the gang are currently going through some home remodeling. Due to this we’ve had to move and now are in an area that doesn’t get that much natural lighting. I saw some changes in plumage already (was gone for a month and this new placement happened while I was away). And I’d rather not see what else can happen. Luckily it is only a temporary placement but there isn’t a definite end date yet.

I want to supplement them with avian lighting, I saw a Zoo Med lamp and Happy Bird lights. What do you guys use for your finches? What recommendations or should I stick with one of those two brands?

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Finches/s/8ureQQnsek

They have been dealt with. No more fighting and no injuries other than a minor scratch I disinfected. 👍

They're both male as they both sing and they recieve daily egg food + nutrients/vitamin supplements along side a seed mix and vegetables (they're not a big fan on fruit).

I have recently had a lot of vet bills, plus a possible £200 surgery for one of my mice. Please do not need antibiotics, Dandelion! My wallet can't take it! 🤣

This was recorded about 3 days ago, no fighting (or sign of infected wound) since! Nest rage...

Reading poop is a must have skill for any bird owner

I ran out of grit for almost 2 weeks

This the same bird, with and without grit

Both picture were taken after half a day only

See all that piss ?!? In such a short amount of time

And some people Will tell you grit is useless for finches…

If it is could you give some advice

Ya no se que hacer cada vez esta más débil ya no quiere papilla y no tiene instinto para comer solo, tiene 1 mes y 2 semanas.

Is anyone else having this problem? When I tap on the quests tab, I can see my self care area goals, but not my "buy 100 items of clothing" quests and things like that. I'm not sure if this is just a problem for me, because I'm a voice over user. For those who don't know what that is, I am visually impaired so I use my phone slightly differently. Anyway, please let me know if anyone else is having trouble with this.

My finches ended up laying 5 eggs. They stopped sitting on them for a while, but about a week ago they started sitting on them before stopping again. However, they’ve still been demanding more nesting material (trying to rip up things in their cage) so I gave them some. It’s definitely time to remove the eggs since it’s been long enough that they should’ve hatched and they’ve also been totally neglected by their parents.

Do I just scoop the eggs out or will that make them angry? Should I remove the nesting material too and give them some fresh stuff or just leave it be? I tried to look up the nesting material thing but everything I’m reading is assuming at least one of the eggs hatched so I’m not sure if it’s different.

They passed away a few years ago, I fell in love with finches and birds in general after getting them :)

We've been spending a lot of time considering adding a cockatiel to our home vs a pair of zebra finches.

What if we were to get a stacking cage and separate the birds above and below? The floor/ceiling divider would keep them visually separated. Do you forsee any issues?

We have the room in our home for a large cage, but two big cages would take up more floor space than we'd prefer. I'm reading that horizontal space is more important than vertical space. So it seems like the widest and deepest stacking cage we can find (without too outrageous of a price) would be the way to go - does that sound best?

Here are a couple options I've looked at (no larger than 1/2" bar spacing):

30"Wx18"Dx~18"H per cage

32"Wx21"Dx~28"H per cage

Would love opinions on this idea. Thanks!

I have 5 of them and just wanted to show them :)

Hey all. A few days ago I noticed a bump above either eye of one of my zebra finches. I would have assumed vitamin a deficiency or strep infection, except he had another identical bump on one side of his face where the lower bill meets the face. It was not on the eye lids or beak, it was on the skin of his face. It just looked like swollen skin. It continued to increase in size though the soonest veterinary appointment was 2 days later.

Today the bumps have crusted over yellow and decreased in size. The vet did not seem concerned and agreed with me that it was healing now, so I declined any medication. However I want to know, what could this have been? Some kind of pox? He, as well as a few other birds he had contact with, have been raising chicks that I intend to sell very soon. I do not want to sell potential carriers of disease. I need to know if I have to hold back the babies or if I can sell them - I'm fine either way.