Red faced & Blue faced Parrot finch breeding question..

[Cacoonkitty]

Hi all,

I know this may seems silly question and most likely covered many times on here somewhere. And I want to strictly say Iam not trying to do anything that should not be done...as I really do not breed my finches much as have more male birds,and just a few pairs.

I currently have two aviarys with mixed species of finches. In one I have just red and blue faced cock birds, no hens and other mixed finches. In the other I have two pairs of parrot finche (sea green x sea green and sea green x Normal red faced pied )

I know that blue faced parrot finches can breed with red faced and sea greens pied parrot finches as they are typically the same bird ( is this correct ?) but is this a common practice to breed the together ?...The reason I ask isIwould like to add a pair of blue faced finch to my other cage, but I a worried they will inter mingle with my sea greens and pied...what would happen if I were todo this ?? Are blues and reds bred together as common practice, what would happed if I did this...the aivary is largest they have there ace and there is no aggression in there, the birds seem to get on fine but I cannot add a he to the other cage as there are to many parrot finch clocks..including the Tri colour parrot cocks ( which I know so very similar to the blue faced butIworry about what would happen of then bred together ) thanks for your help.

[iaos]

Hi,

Sea-green's are a mutation of red-faced parrot-finches, I.e. they are the same species. Blue faced parrot-finches are a separate species but are known to hybridise with RFPFs. So no you shouldn't add a pair of BFPFs to your aviary that has RFPF cocks.

People also recommended not housing BFPFs and RFPFs with tri-coloureds, but I haven't heard or seen an example of a hybrid.

Furthermore, are you confident that your cockbirds are cockbirds, I for one aren't confident in sexing parrot-finches.

Cheers Ian

[BluJay]

Oops, my mistake.

[Craig52]

The short answer is no,all of the available parrot finches in Australia will hybridize,in the early days of the tricolour pf there was a lot of hybrids of BFPF's around as the first breedings of tri's produced 90% cocks.Many crossed these to BF and sold the young on,only to find these hybrids were infertile,which was good imo so PLEASE,keep your parrot finch species separate in their own aviaries. Craig

[Stu]

Agree with all above.
Keep your Parrot Finch species apart.
There is a chance that any finch species in a mixed aviary may hybridize but I believe a minimum to be, at least keep the genus apart.
Red Face Parrot Finch (including, Sea Green PF and Pied Red Face PF) Erythrura psittacea- is actually Red-throated Finch but common term is 'Red Face"
Blue Face Parrot Finch Erythrura trichroa
Tri-coloured Parrot Finch Erythrura tricolor
Gouldian Finch is also of the genus Erythrura.

[BluJay]

Oops. My mistake.

[Cacoonkitty]

Awww thanks guys, yes this Is what I thought, but I decided to double check just to clarify a thoughts had...at the moment I have definite cock birds in one Aviary ( red faced, blue faced and Tri colours 2 of each ) and they all get along fine, there are no females in this Aviary. My 2 Tri colour boys I got from a private seller and I am very happy with these little guys, the other 4 I saw in a pet shop near me and I felt so sorry for them being in tiny dirty looking cages I bought them all to save them from a miserable life and now they are very happy, healthy little naughty birds ( spoilt rotten too )

In my second Aviary I have one pair of sea greens ( sexed as have seen them do the deed and the hen has "in the recent past" laid eggs in the shop I bought them from) and I also have a very beautiful pied cock bird and again a sea green hen. They all have separate nesting sites and food stations and they seem very happy. So fingers crossed I will perhaps get some eggs....now I have never bred finches before, It was not my intention to breed birds on a large scale, but with these guys ai loved them so thought I would have a go...I've bred a lot of reptiles in the past and funny enough birds are very similar when it come to egg laying and supplements...so feel I can manage this.

What I wanted to know is now that have my pairs happy in Aviary 2 ( along with a few docile other finches) is there any specific things I need to supply to the birds to prepare and supplement them whilst possibly egg laying and feeding babes ?

thanks again everyone , much appreciated