Mixed aviary.

[almelrosa]

Hi, I'm setting up a new large aviary for my Grandson,was wondering what colourful finches could go in with Neophemas.Plenty of cover for small birds available. Any help would be appreciated.

[Brisbane_Finches_333]

Welcome to the forum! How big is your aviary?

Some finches that are easy to care for include Gouldian Finches, Star Finches, Zebra Finches (although Zebs can be bossy to other finches), Bengalese Finches, Double-Barred and Painted Finches.

If you're supplying livefood (insects) to your finches, some colourful, easy to care for finches that require livefood are African Firefinches, Orange Breasted Waxbills and Red-Eared Cordon Bleus. Many of the finches stated in the first paragraph that don't need livefood may eat it if supplied however.

Apart from that, what are you feeding them? Other than seed, most finches relish green seed heads (taken off 'weed' grasses, just make sure they haven't been sprayed by council), finch soft food, cuttlebone, leafy veg, cucumber and baked eggshells, which there are many topics on this forum explaining how to cook them.

Lastly, make sure the aviary is rodent proof!! An aviary requires either a concrete/wire floor which may be covered in sand or bark, or a 40cm deep trench around the edges (if you're planning on having live vegetation).

Thanks,
Aidan

[almelrosa]

Aviary is about 20 x 10 x 8 feet high. Thanks for your help Aidan, gives us plenty of scope with such a large collection to choose from. Also your information on feeding will be very useful
Thanks again Alan.

[Rod_L]

Watch the Neophemas in a large aviary. They regularly panic fly at night and in a large aviary, they can build up a lot of speed before hitting the wire and cracking their skulls open. The best way to prevent this is by making sure there are no animals hanging around the aviary at night, having lots of soft leaf plants at the ends of the aviary, and adding a small low wattage LED night light to the aviary.

Out of curiosity, what Neophemas do you have or plan on getting?
I used to have scarlets, Bourkes and turquoisines. Beautiful birds, the Bourkes are semi nocturnal and regularly fly at night. If you keep finches that sleep in nests at night, Bourkes won't disturb them as much compared to finches that sleep on perches.

[almelrosa]

Bourkes and turquoise mainly.

[finchbreeder]

Those two can be mixed just fine. Most Neophemas should not be mixed with other Neophemas due to the risk of crossbreeding. But the "safe" one that can go with others is the Bourke. As both of the guys have said, put in plenty of brush at the ends of the avairy, for the finches to shelter in, and to prevent crashes caused by frights. Also put in a mix of nest boxs, with finch and parrot size holes so they don't argue about who's nest is who's. Great sized avairy, so mixing should work.
LML

[Shane Gowland]

I've found neophemas cause too much chaos in my larger aviary. When they're able to pick up speed, their landing scares the absolute bejesus out of any finches in the vacinity. In the smaller (3mx2m) aviary, the neophema parrots don't cause the finches any stress at all.

Something to consider.

[finchbreeder]

Perhaps put thick bushing in the middle of the avairy, with just a small gap or 2 that the finches can fly through, and the neophemas have to stop and crawl through? I have never kept parrotts of any type with finches so just speculating here. The central brush would leave the avairy as 20ft for the finches, but halve it to 10ft for the neophemas. For best rodent proofing make sure your foundations go down 600/700 into the ground and that the sides are also rodent proof to a similar height.
LML