Aussie Finch Forum

Pity you weren't closer to Dubbo.

I guess this weekend I'll have to keep them out in the aviary as much as possible, and hope that they can deal with two feeds a day from monday onwards! It's a week from now... Sunday will mark two weeks since they were orphaned so they should definitely be fledging by then. Maybe I can keep them in a small cage so while they're weaning they have very little flight space and I can still feed twice daily, and then once they're feeding independently they can learn to fly properly. I know it's not entirely humane to restrict their flight space, buy maybe this way they'll survive, though maybe developmentally delayed for a bit. I guess it's no worse than being sold to a pet shop... Their cages are stupidly small.

possibly. I know spanna put the little gouldian in the aviary a while after it fledged for half a day(. This was after failing to ween him and he came back in knowing how to eat seed. Also the cage may not be the best for them but its not permanent... and I think most people will agree about the pet stores. It makes me sad every time i see all the birds crammed into a cage that is as small as they are...

From what Ive read on here the hand raised babies tend to take longer to fledge, wean and become totally independent than the parent raised.
Just trying to think outside the box here, are you able to contact any finch clubs locally to see if there is someone willing to take them on, maybe some of the members here know of a local club you could try.

Hi, I have just read your post as we have not had the internet for a couple of weeks. Sorry about your loss, I live in Sydney and if I was not going away would have taken your little finches and fed them till they could feed themselves. I have hand raised two lots of zebras one lot from the day they were born tossed out of the nest. My experience they took along time to start eating themselves I never had 7 though first lot 2 and second lot3. I would keep them in a cage as the nights are too cold I have a few large cages if you want a lend of one.A few times I fed them in the morning and late in the afternoon when I could not take them with me and they survived. Send me a PM if you want a lend of a large cage. Good luck. I live Sutherland Shire.

Well I think your doing well so far!
I havent had much luck with handraising my own..in the past

I wonder how much your local vet would charge to feed them during the day for you .. They would only crop feed so the birds wouldn't become too attached to the person feeding . It would probably be an assistant or such doing the feeding .

RSPCA would feed them but you would have to surrender them first .

Local bird clubs might be able to help but again you may need to pay the person feeding them .

Jusdeb - THANK YOU! just realized I have a friend who is a vet nurse and your mention of paying a vet made me realize I can ask her!

On other notes, they're all still alive, although not sure the smallest one will make it. He keeps getting trodden on and isn't looking so happy. The rest are jumping out of the box and onto our hands for feeding these days, though they still look very scrawny. I definitely agree with what someone here said about hand raised birds taking a lot longer to grow, fledge and wean. In the aviary they would definitely have fledged by now.

My father also went and bought a single gouldian pair yesterday to act as 'role models'. They leave for Europe tomorrow so the next month should be interesting.

Congratulations on doing such a good job. I hope your friend was able to help you out too. Good luck!

WORST JOB EVER!!!

I'm so upset right now.

So on Wednesday we lost the tiniest one. And then there were 6.

All was fine yesterday... but last night was the coldest night we've had and I lost two. Went to feed them, and they know when we come and they all 'flew' across to get to my hand. One fell short... fell a foot to the ground, must have fallen badly and it died in front of my.

This sux. I just halved my numbers in a matter of minutes