Catching zebs in planted aviaries

[montall]

I was wondering if anyone has any special formula for catching zebs. My aviaries are planted with Callistemons which are now quite big and the birds can easily avoid capture by ducking in amongst the branches. I am thinking about moving them into another cage, thanks to a tip from Finchbreeder about just keeping one pair in with more exotic finches and changing that breeding pair for another after a couple of clutches. The thought of moving all of them at first is daunting to say the least, not to mention the ongoing catching and moving, but I would like to try it. Has anyone got any ideas on a way to make the task easier?

[tonytoast]

Small cage inside your feed area with door operated by a piece of fishing line....put fresh greens (or just use it as your seed station) and wait for them to go in. All my birds feed (except termites) is served in a small cage....easy to get the birds in there but hard to not catch others that maybe you do not want to catch...it may take a few days for them to get used to it....Toast

[elferoz777]

TT is right...or you could try and net them like I did....


took me 2 hrs to catch two and a whole heap of bad language

[montall]

Ha ha, I know what you mean I've tried netting them too. I tried the small cage idea once too, worked a little better but not much, they weren't all that interested in going in there. In the end I resorted to hosing them to slow them down and netting them that way. Not ideal, but they had to be moved because we were moving house and thankfully it was a hot day. I was lucky on that occasion, no casualties from the hosing but I wouldn't like to risk it again unless it was absolutely necessary.

[finchbreeder]

Do you have a safety door section? I shoo mine into that, close it and catch. Also net them. Having just recently caught, catalougued (to make sure there were no mistakes) sorted into keeping and selling, over 50 Zebs I know what you mean. The quantity sneaks up on you. The most effective way to use the small cage trap is to remove all other food sources. Hungary birds will go in.
LML

[montall]

Yeah I have a safety area, a closet that I can enter and close the door behind me before opening the other doors to the three cages. I have a short hose that is curled up in there and I take it into the cages to fill the water dishes so I never completely shut the interior doors behind me. Practically every bird I have ever owned has hopped into that closet to check it out - bar a zebra finch. I swear the bloody things are crafty and know they can be caught easily that way. I even used the closet to recapture some birds from 'The Great Escape', (explanation below) worked a treat for the canary and cordons, but I never got a single zeb. Come to think of it I don't think I actually lost any zebs, (not that I would miss a couple I suppose).

The Great Escape happened when we moved into a property where my three little dogs were now sharing the backyard with the birds. That hadn't happened before and the little quails running around on the floor of the cages were just too hard to resist for one of them. She chewed a hole in the wire. It cost her three loose teeth but she persevered.

It took us a while to work out how the birds were escaping, we checked that cage numerous times and missed the chewed hole completely. At first we thought someone had been pinching the birds because only the more expensive ones appeared to be missing. The first to go were the gouldians, followed by at least one orange breast and a blue faced parrot finch, then a ruddy and finally the cordons that I saw flitting around in the trees behind the aviary. We caught them and put them back, checked everything again and still missed the hole, then the next day one of the canaries got out and was flitting around the backyard. That's when we decided there MUST be a hole (we had now put a lock on the aviary) and eventually I found it down at ground level, just a tiny little hole, but I suppose that's all that is needed for tiny little birds, but it suprised me that the canary squeezed through.

[finchbreeder]

My avairy area is fenced off from the Jack Russell. As I know I can't trust her to not go bird hunting if she can't find rodents to hunt. Try the seed in small cages only method then.
LML

[vettepilot_6]

I use traps...remove feed and have seed available on trap only.... such as these viewtopic.php?f=41&t=8322&hilit=trap

[BOF33]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/321024526108 ... 844wt_1398

This one looks good too. A bit more room.

[vettepilot_6]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/321024526108 ... 844wt_1398

This one looks good too. A bit more room.

Tried them with smaller wire not sensitive enough....