painted firetail finch

[haydn92]

hey all i am haydn
its been awhile since i last been on here, i have in total 16 birds which are all mine an my brother shannon has left the hobby of bird keeping, my birds are 1 princess parrot(Rosie)1 hr Cockatiel(sookie 2)2 IRN's(Orry an Lily)2 Rainbow loris(Buzby an charlie) there my inside birds an now my outside birds 4 cockatiels and 6 budgies. I have been more a parrot guy instead of finches but i want to get into finches, so i've been browsing the net looking for finches other then zebbies an the socitey finch, i found gouldians,star's,BF parrot finch,euro gold finch an the painted firetail.
so basically i am a beginner finch keeper so what finch is good for me to start out with?
i like all of them expecialy the painted firetail an the parrot finch

i would love to hear any experiance's u lot have had with any of these?

thank you for reading

[kimberley breeder]

Hi Hadyn-
Once you start with finches you may never go back They are delightful little creatures with each species having their own unique personalities and behaviours. My advice would be to da a lot of reading and research on the web to get an understandign of what housing and food requirements are needed.

In terms of a good finch for a beginner you cant go past the Zebra Finch. Easy to breed and keep and if looked after correcty will give you years of joy and babies ONce you have been sucessful in breeding and keeping zebras for a while you could look at moving into some of the other australian finches such as the painted firetail.

Parrot finches and Gouldians in my opinion require a bit more experience in keeping. I would give yourself a year or 2 before you started thinking about Gouldians and a bit more time before parrot finches. The Blue Faced is the easiest then the REd Faced and after a few more years you could give the Tannimbars (Tri coloureds) a whirl.

Your exotic finches/waxbills generally require livefood when breeding so depending on your access to termites or other means of livefood might be best to wait on these for a while.

Good luck and enjoy your journey into Finch keeping. I too started with Parrots when I was 12 and now only have finches for the last 10 years:)

[Jayburd]

Welcome back Haydn say hi to Shannon for me.
Painteds are a pretty good beginner finch, so are gouldians - my first ever gouldian chicks fledged today, so if I can do it anyone can!!!
Haven't kept stars or BFPF, but can highly recommend the other two
Good luck
J

[djb78]

Hi Hayden if you would like to skip the zeb and bengo stage painteds and stars would be next as both dint need live food but will benefit from having it and are a great starter for the live food side of finches. Gouldians are also good with their diet and requirements not to hard but have the problem with breeding not as reliable as some others. BFPF never had them but would class them as the next step after painteds needing a bit more attention.

[jusdeb]

My favourite finch is the Painteds .

[haydn92]

shannon had 6 goulds a while back but they all died, he had zebbies but they died. The only finch i ever owned were 2 euro goldfinches, they were abit hard to look after, shannon gave me his last 2 finches but they were cold an sick so i would put them in a cage an cover them in hay to keep them warm but they died, i might start with zebras an painteds, an maybe stars, i've read that they are similer to goulds, i am gonna turn a 2 story rabbit cage into a small aviary but this might happen in winter or after as i have had 5 parrots die last winter,which i fear an can termite's be ordered or not

thanks guys