Morphine Kiss
Moth Feathers
I only keep finches in the PVC cages, since they're such nondestructive little fellows that it's fine for them. Budgies...I've seen pictures of them in PVC cages, but I used to be concerned with the possibility of them chewing out and wouldn't recommend PVC cages for them. But after owning Parsley and seeing her chewing habits, I'm actually not that resistant to the idea. She really doesn't chew all that much, just mostly 'beaks' and couldn't really do all that much damage, and if she had a buddy (which I will be getting her eventually), she would chew even less, since she wouldn't be so bored. Birds do so much better in pairs.
But I don't think she'll ever be in a PVC cage. The plastic hardware cloth is not very kind to certain things such as heavy perches. I have my Prevue flight I'll move her in once the finchies currently inhabiting that have been moved.
I have some pictures, they're just sort of old and things have changed since then. And they're all pretty bad pictures, I've gotten more experience with the camera since then. xD
Here's the girl's cage, the day I put them in it.
Another picture of it.
Sorry for the pictures being so darn bright. I have no clue what I was thinking.
The girl's cage is 30 inches wide, 36 long, and 40 tall. I took some of the chairs we had in the dining room, had the backs removed, and the cage sits on that.
It looks pretty nice in the pictures but structure-wise it was a total flop (though at least it's a spacious flop and the birds don't care, and when people come in and see the cage they think "Wow!" despite the problems). I was really rushed when I was building it and did a poor job. I've had at least four escapes (and I built the cage in like, March), have /many/ areas I've had to patch up due to gaps, and the front is actually bowed because of poor planning, which then makes the front doors all wonky. Making that cage was soo much more complex than my first PVC cage. You learn exponentially with each cage you build, it's really a learning curve.
I've pretty much fixed what I can (no escapees since patching it up really nice), but it still has issues that could never be resolved unless I reduced it to a pile of pipes and hardware cloth.
That's why I'm excited to build my next one, which is using the same exact plans as the first cage, but this time I'll take my time and know how to modify it so it ends up nicer.
Here's Cheep and Squeak's cage. It had to be taken at an angle because of all the other cages in the room being in the way. xD My bird room is getting packed now. It was my first PVC cage. Its simplicity is what has saved me, and I've never had escapees or any problems with it, though there's a lot I still dislike about it. Like I said, it's really a learning curve.
Tomorrow the pictures should be better, though.
I don't have any issues with seed moths or anything, but I was wondering if refrigerating the seed would help conserve more of the nutritional content or something along those lines.
I googled it once and there were websites that said "never refrigerate seed!", but gave no reasons for it, so I was like "whatever".
I like your organization system for your feed storage! It's pretty cool. So, every day you go back there and get the food out, or do you have some sort of temporary thing that you store the food in?
For mine, I have seed in 'longterm storage', which is in the coffee cans, but I also have some short term seed storage, which is just where I get the seed for that day's feeding. It's a small mug on the bird room table that has enough seed in it to last a week. I just have a small scooper and for every day feeding take seed out of the mug, then when the mug empties once a week or so, I go to the coffee cans and fill it back up again. It's just to keep the coffee cans opened as little as possible, which I assume helps it last longer. It's also less time consuming, heh.
I love how natural those cages are, truly, truly, very much, love them. Do you keep male and female finches separated? (If so, why? I actually don't know anything about finches to be honest)
But seriously those cages are great. I can't wait to see updated pictures. If I ever did get into birds, i'm more than sure i'd want to go for a look a lot like that.
Do finches bond to humans like say, a budgie would? They seem so small and fragile.
The things as shown that are labeled, are my temporary food bins. Which, the time lengths mentioned are how long food stays in them. It's fairly air tight so I have no problems with anything getting in or anything going stale. The actual bags I get last soo long. My 25 lb chinchilla bag, I got last August, and it's still not really even dented. xD
I'd say, more than anything, if seed can go stale, I would keep it in the freezer. Though I have hamster seed, and I haven't had any problems with it. I'm not sure if nutrition could dissipate but i'm sure that if it could, it'd be if it went stale. And i'll assume hamster seed is very similar, while not the same thing of course. I know that sunflower seeds however, easily go stale. And black oil sunflower seeds as well.
I keep my males and females separated, yes. I honestly consider it a must-have if you're dealing with Zebras and Societies. Zebra finches (the species I have) are the kind of birds that will try to raise babies in the food dish, they just breed so easily. As I am highly, highly opposed to accidental breeding in birds (since, unlike mammals, it's entirely 100 percent preventable), I keep mine segregated. Even if one was to take precautions to prevent the birds from raising young (such as replacing the fertile eggs with dummy eggs), why bother putting that sort of stress on them in the first place? When females lay eggs, they are literally taking /calcium from their bones/. Keeping the genders together is like one big "breeding" stimulus, and it's really not good to support because the hens /will/ lay eggs, and that's just so hard on their bodies. So I keep them segregated to prevent any breeding.
Even with my genders segregated, the males still get a bit breeding-happy. xD For example, Cheep, one of my boys, currently has a 'nest' of sorts made out of wilted greens and shredded newspaper that sits on top of a fern. Never gave him any nesting material, he made do with what was in the cage.
But a lot of people don't keep their genders segregated. Whatever. There's also a lot of people who also don't give their finches plants for mental enrichment- but I do, because I consider them much more than mindless automata and they need something to do.
For other species beside Zebras (and to a lesser extent Societies), it's really not necessary to keep the genders segregated (and in many species it's nearly impossible to, since they aren't visually sexed) since in those species preventing breeding is as easy as not giving the birds any nest or nesting material.
Aw, thanks for the compliments! I love having plants and such in the cages too. When I build my aviary, it's going to be even better...I'm thinking of having like, /real/ plants, plus like a shallow bird bath in there and a 'wild bird feeder' for their feed, and maybe whatever other things I could find. The bigger the cage, the more fun you can have with it...sort of like with aquariums, where the bigger the tank the bigger/more exotic species you can put into it.
Yeah, finches definitely are small. After owning them for so long I tend to not notice it, but whenever I have to handle them I definitely notice how just itty-bitty they are. Part of the reason I love them so!
No, they don't really bond to humans at all. In fact, they're deathly afraid of humans, and they wouldn't even care if they never saw a human ever again.
Granted, you do get a sort of 'relationship' with them. After a while they learn that you aren't going to try to catch them or anything, and will get fairly close when I'm doing cage maintenance and such. Generally the bigger the environment the more tame they become too- for example, it's not uncommon for finches in aviaries to land on top of your head or your arm. In my cages, even though they may be considered relatively large compared to what some people put birds in, my finches would never dream of doing that. xD
Some people who let their finches out of the cage to fly around also develop more of a relationship to them (such as the birds landing on their hand). You see a lot of videos of that on Youtube. But like I said earlier, it's more of the size of the environment than anything else- birds in big enclosures become much more tame and nice.
Hey, you feed lab blocks/pellet-type things for some of your critters, don't you?
I was wondering if you ever find molasses as one of the ingredients in small mammal pellets, and if you do, is it much of a concern or is it something that you want to stay away from?
I was reading on a budgie forum about some people who gave their birds guinea pig pellets for the fiber/alfalfa in it. It's nothing new, I've heard of racing pigeon breeders doing the same thing. But, the pellets often have molasses in them, so I was wondering if that's bad or good? I also think other pellets beside guinea pig pellets (such as rat blocks, maybe) might have molasses in them too. I know you don't know if it's good or bad for birds, I'm just asking about if it's bad for small mammals.