New additions!

[FinchFan]

On the weekend, myself and my OH happened to be travelling past a bird shop. Never one to go past without stopping, we venture in and look around. I head straight for the bird room. OH follows and 5 minutes later OH is saying that he likes 'those birds', and 15 minutes later we walk out with a pair of European GoldFinches. Usually one to discourage impulse buys ( ive never seen / heard of Goldfinches ) i was quite happy to take home the pair. Maybe i .might get my 'next' aviary afterall... and it looks like we have another FinchFan. Happy about that. The GoldFinches are in with my Gouldian fledglings, and im busy studying up on them. They are a bit 'jumpy' for my liking, they remind me of a zeb somehow., but.. they will grow on me.....

Late this afternoon i brought home a pair of YB RH Gouldians. Super excited. They are still in the carry cage and i will leave them in there for safe keeping until i release them in the aviary tomorrow. All is well. Besides the mice. Ive laid baits and on the weekend found a dead baby on the floor of the aviary. Ive had birds and the aviaries 6 months and for the previous 8 years had not seen any mice or evidence of mice on the property. i live semi rural with a huge open field behind me. Just goes to show what seed brings in! Brave mice considering i have 4 cats. Ive been supervising 'Ginge' letting him out for an hour or so. No results yet but i know he can smell them as he sits between the aviary and the back fence.

Ongoing...!

[craig]

I kept a pair of Goldfinches in my aviary for a while, from memory they are pretty hard to sex. So hopefully you do have a male and female, my pair just kept fighting all day long. So back they went back from where they came from =) And they do enjoy flying about, buggers to catch ! I have seen them bred with canaries and I think they look pretty cool + they sing !

[Diane]

I sympathize with you on the mouse problem, I just went through the same thing. I laid bait outside the aviary and thought that would be the end of the mouse problem.
Then I saw a mouse a bit unsteady on its feet in the aviary and it pooped blue before it left down a hole
Next day I lost a nest of two chicks and a hen. I think the birds may have ingested some of the blue fecal matter. Anyway, I decided to run the risk of missing this years breeding season and moved all the birds out into holding cages except for one pair that already had young. I took out all the ground cover which was mainly bark and replaced it with a layer wire then a layer of small stones and shellgrit on top.
I now only use the snap traps. Apart from a couple of incidents with greedy dogs trying to get at the peanut butter (dont think they will try that again ) I feel Im making headway with the mouse problem, we have also had a really cold snap here so Im hoping that might knock off a few too.

Just a thought, keep an eye on the cats too just in case they catch a mouse that has consumed some bait.

[Jayburd]

as most of you know by now, I can also sympathise with the mice! lost 8 good birds too them.