Aussie Finch Forum

Has anyone on the forum had any success with these birds? If so, how are you keeping them. I kept Dybowski's Twinspots about 14 years ago and had some success. I can remember always having excess cock birds. The last four cock birds I had left in north Qld went to Sydney in a box of mixed finches to a dealer in 1999. I ran out of space to hold them all separate, as the cocks were aggressive to each other. At one stage, I had 15 cocks separated into 15 individual cabinets as I had no room in my holding aviaries. I lost my last two hens in 1999 of old age as they were laying clear eggs. Cheers

I have heard that the last Peters TS were being held by Mike Fidler and that there are no hens left.

Cheers Ian

Hi Fireback

We bred them a few years back in small flights (1.8m x 750mm) fully roofed and the floor was covered in grass hay. They nested on the floor, feeding was finch mix etc plus greens, maggots, mealworms and termites. they mainly ate the maggots and mealies when they had chicks, and sprouts with eggfood mixed in.

We only had trouble with cocks when an extra bird was added into the holding aviary or if there was hens in there as well when it came up to breeding season. They dont seem to be as fiesty as dybowski's.

I think there are a few still tucked away but they are struggling.

E Orix wrote:I think there are a few still tucked away but they are struggling.

Probably tucked away in a "nursing home"

About 3 or so years ago Crystal pet and wire had 2 cocks for sale. I was tempted to buy but knew I'd never get hens. Does anyone know where these 2 cocks came from or went? I found it very odd to see them at a dealers.

Jeez I thought mike n the lowes had these guys sorted

Bloody shame to see them gone

Firetail555, looks like you had good success with the peters . It wasn't that long ago 6 years I guess that I observed quite a few breeding pairs west of Brisbane. They were breeding quite a few. I was hoping crossing my fingers that others were having the same success, so as the availability and numbers would increase. From memory, my dybowski cock birds ended up going to Andrews Bird Palace NSW as no one wanted them. No good with no hens. Cheers

Fireback wrote:Firetail555, looks like you had good success with the peters . It wasn't that long ago 6 years I guess that I observed quite a few breeding pairs west of Brisbane. They were breeding quite a few. I was hoping crossing my fingers that others were having the same success, so as the availability and numbers would increase. From memory, my dybowski cock birds ended up going to Andrews Bird Palace NSW as no one wanted them. No good with no hens. Cheers

The credit for establishing them belongs with my mate Jeremy White. He worked very hard to sort out their requirements and bred many birds, and all parent reared. The problem was that when we started selling them, not many people followed the instructions/advice given to keep them alive and breeding. same old story, everyone knows better than the bloke who is breeding them. We even had one guy drive for 10 hours to pick up a pair and even though he was told not to release them into an open aviary in the middle of winter, he did so, and late in the arvo, only to find the hen frozen stiff in the morning. We also heard that some were fostering them under bengalese. I know this helps with numbers, but I am not sure that it does much good long term.

it is a real shame that they are so low in numbers especially as they were reasonably free breeders in the right conditions.

It's a real shame that these birds don't appear to be in larger numbers with the wealth of information available around the world via the internet in the last 14 years; and the number of experienced breeders with better housing and a better understanding of diets and requirements of different species. Obviously the gene pool must come into play as well, as I have no idea how many birds were originally available to start with. This appears to have been the same problem with the Dybowski's as they were breeding quite well 15-20 years ago, then all of a sudden they stopped. Their availability back then was reflected in the price. These birds were once $2500-3000 a pair. But as more birds were kept and bred by a larger number of breeders, this made them more affordable and they could be obtained for $500.00 a pair. Cheers