Questions from a New Comer

[Greg41]

When I moved the finches into the new avairy I put plastic/rubber leg bands on them,some of them seem to spend a lot of time
picking at them. I made sure that they were loose etc when fitted, do they get used to them or should they only be put onto young birds?
Also I was told that if you want more than one pair of the same sort in the avairy it is better to have 3 rather than 2prs as this stops fighting, any comments please.
Since I've started keeping finches I look at things in a different way,now when we go walking in the nearby park/nature reserve I take a plastic
bag and scissors to collect seed heads and grasses for the birds and eye off any good looking shrubbery
Cheers Greg.

[Diane]

Any birds I get end up with leg bands on them, bought birds, home bred young, makes no difference. I have to be able to tell who is who. I like the record keeping side of it too.
I have had a few that had trouble adapting to the bands in the first couple of days, fidgeting with them but after a couple of days they forget.
OB young can lose leg bands before I even get out of the aviary, so I wait until I can just see the begining of adult colour coming through, then I band.
The only problem I had was with two particular gouldians, they would suddenly quickly "stare" at the leg bands and stamp their feet, it was definitely the bands that made them do it as one bird only had a band on one leg that that was the leg she would stamp Funnily, they were from the same breeding too.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4257&hilit=+leg+bands

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3765&p=20176&hilit=stamping#p20176

Also I was told that if you want more than one pair of the same sort in the avairy it is better to have 3 rather than 2prs as this stops fighting, any comments please.

I was told that too, and its true, at least in the case of the two pair of gouldians I set up together.

[jusdeb]

All my birds get used to them in a day or 2 , OBs chuck them off in no time as Di said.

[finchbreeder]

It does seem best to keep all birds in a 1 or 3 or more pair arrangement. Only times I have had 2 pair arrangements they just did not seem to do anything.
LML