Aussie Finch Forum

Posted: **08 May 2018, 23:57**

Hi every one,

I am facing a problem in long tail grass finch chicks, this is the second season of my finch with me, i have 8 pairs of grass finch in a colony, last year and this year my grass finch chicks die after few days of hatching. Initially i though colony breading might be the reason so i put them cage by cage for good 4~5 months, few pairs breed in cage by cage but the chicks never survived.

My second thought is that my finch like soft food very much. I tried last year training them to eat veggies n sprouts, they don't like the egg food at all, comparatively they are eating better then the last year (no egg food), still i think there some work need to do. Almost all of the pairs are doing the same. (Throw out dead chicks and some times even alive chicks)

Can any one guide me what could be the reason?

Regards
Kamran

Posted: **09 May 2018, 09:12**

Firstly, WELCOME to the AFF, Kamran.

Are you providing any form of live food?
Are you inpecting the nests?
When in the breeding boxes do the birds have some privacy screening?
Longtails are best suited to planted aviaries but can be cage bred. It sounds as if some of the prerequisites are not being met.

Posted: **09 May 2018, 09:22**

He did say Long tailed finch Starman. I have no experience with these. Craig

Posted: **09 May 2018, 09:35**

Craig,
I re-read the original post and picked up on that.. thanks... apologies to the OP. I did a fast retraction, but not fast enough (I am a patheticly slow typist, even slower when eating breakfast).

Posted: **09 May 2018, 09:53**

long tails love seeded grass heads when they have young and sprouted seed is a must for rearing young, they will also take mealworms and maggots, cheers mick

Posted: **09 May 2018, 13:45**

Shaft-tail/ Longtail/ Blackheart finches are best bred in colonies and do not normally take a lot of live foods, although some will, they prefer green grass seeds for breeding and rearing young. They normally make very good parents and rear multiple batches of young every year as long as they have plenty of food and water.

Feed them green grass seeds every day. You can collect or grow them in your garden. The following link has an article on growing grass seeds for finches.
viewtopic.php?f=84&t=21732&p=188305&hil ... ed#p188305

Make up an egg biscuit mix. Get 1/2 cup of Cornflakes and put them in a plastic or paper bag and use a rolling pin to crush the cornflakes into small pieces. Boil an egg and peel the shell off it. Crush the boiled egg into the cornflakes and mix them together. You can crush the egg shell and feed that to your birds too.
*NB* If you add chicken eggs to a bird cage or aviary, make sure they have been boiled before use so no chicken diseases get into your cage/ aviary.

Make sure they have a bowl of mineral grit and some cuttlefish bone. They don't use much of this but they do need to have it available all the time.

Make sure they have lots of food available all the time. I fed mine 2 parts finch mix and 1 part blue ribbon canary mix as the basic seed, and added the above foods in addition to their normal seed diet.

------------------------
Mine always bred in bottle nests like the one in the following link. If they did not have these types of nest they made their own in the bushes. Make sure they have plenty of long grass/ grass stalks (about 8-12inches long) so they can line their nests.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2028/ ... 1511204452

------------------------
Don't get too nosey and touch the nest each day to see how they are doing. Have a look inside the nest but do it from a couple of feet away. If you see a bird sitting in the nest them leave them alone.

------------------------
Do the dead babies have seed in their crops? You should be able to see bird seed under the skin below the neck.
If the babies do not have seed in their crops the parents are not feeding them and that would be very unusual.

The babies could have a fungal or bacterial infection that is killing them. How old are the nests and do you replace them each year?
If you have another baby that dies, take it to a vet and have them autopsy it and find out why it died. It will cost you a bit of money to do this but it will rule out diseases.

If you are doing all this and the birds are still dying, then check the birds at night and make sure mice, rats, cats, or ants are not attacking them during the night. Owls can also stress birds but since Shaft-tails sleep in a nest at night, they are less prone to panic flying at night. Mice, rats and ants will go into nests at night and attack the parents driving them off the nest and the babies either die from cold or get eaten alive.

Posted: **09 May 2018, 22:55**

Welcome to the forum. What size is your avairy? How many nests do you have? Hope the suggestions the guys have made are of help.
LML

Posted: **10 May 2018, 20:14**

starman wrote: 09 May 2018, 09:12 Firstly, WELCOME to the AFF, Kamran.

Are you providing any form of live food?
Are you inpecting the nests?
When in the breeding boxes do the birds have some privacy screening?
Longtails are best suited to planted aviaries but can be cage bred. It sounds as if some of the prerequisites are not being met.

First of all thanks for your reply, i am not providing any live food, i inspect the nest about once a week, my colony size i bit small & its indoor, size is 5 feet width, 4 feet height, 2.5 feet depth, there are no plants in side

Posted: **10 May 2018, 20:32**

Rod_L wrote: 09 May 2018, 13:45 Shaft-tail/ Longtail/ Blackheart finches are best bred in colonies and do not normally take a lot of live foods, although some will, they prefer green grass seeds for breeding and rearing young. They normally make very good parents and rear multiple batches of young every year as long as they have plenty of food and water.

Feed them green grass seeds every day. You can collect or grow them in your garden. The following link has an article on growing grass seeds for finches.
viewtopic.php?f=84&t=21732&p=188305&hil ... ed#p188305

Make up an egg biscuit mix. Get 1/2 cup of Cornflakes and put them in a plastic or paper bag and use a rolling pin to crush the cornflakes into small pieces. Boil an egg and peel the shell off it. Crush the boiled egg into the cornflakes and mix them together. You can crush the egg shell and feed that to your birds too.
*NB* If you add chicken eggs to a bird cage or aviary, make sure they have been boiled before use so no chicken diseases get into your cage/ aviary.

Make sure they have a bowl of mineral grit and some cuttlefish bone. They don't use much of this but they do need to have it available all the time.

Make sure they have lots of food available all the time. I fed mine 2 parts finch mix and 1 part blue ribbon canary mix as the basic seed, and added the above foods in addition to their normal seed diet.

------------------------
Mine always bred in bottle nests like the one in the following link. If they did not have these types of nest they made their own in the bushes. Make sure they have plenty of long grass/ grass stalks (about 8-12inches long) so they can line their nests.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2028/ ... 1511204452

------------------------
Don't get too nosey and touch the nest each day to see how they are doing. Have a look inside the nest but do it from a couple of feet away. If you see a bird sitting in the nest them leave them alone.

------------------------
Do the dead babies have seed in their crops? You should be able to see bird seed under the skin below the neck.
If the babies do not have seed in their crops the parents are not feeding them and that would be very unusual.

The babies could have a fungal or bacterial infection that is killing them. How old are the nests and do you replace them each year?
If you have another baby that dies, take it to a vet and have them autopsy it and find out why it died. It will cost you a bit of money to do this but it will rule out diseases.

If you are doing all this and the birds are still dying, then check the birds at night and make sure mice, rats, cats, or ants are not attacking them during the night. Owls can also stress birds but since Shaft-tails sleep in a nest at night, they are less prone to panic flying at night. Mice, rats and ants will go into nests at night and attack the parents driving them off the nest and the babies either die from cold or get eaten alive.

Thanks for the such a detailed information, i am not giving the grass seed currently but surly i will start it, they are not very good it eating the egg food, the environment in not to noisy with human but there are several birds there making noise. I don't inspect the nest every day, inspect one a week or so. I am not using the bottle shape nest, i tried 2 types of nest (attached pics) but results are same. The chicks crops always looks empty. There is not chance of owls or rat or any unexpected disturbance in night because the colony is indoor. There is some possibility of lizards, for which i take a lot of care if found any in the birds area

Posted: **10 May 2018, 20:34**

finchbreeder wrote: 09 May 2018, 22:55 Welcome to the forum. What size is your avairy? How many nests do you have? Hope the suggestions the guys have made are of help.
LML

Thanks for your reply. The size of the colony is 5W x 4H x 2.5D, and there are 8 pairs in it

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