Finch keeping of the past

[Diane]

Does anyone make their own calcium blocks any more ?

This question got me thinking.
I would imagine many years ago, there would have been a group of people keeping birds with garden sheds full of bottles and paper bags full of all different kinds of stuff that was created for, fed to, and dusted on finches.
These people must have been a fountain of knowledge, sadly it seems to me that as we have more and more people keeping finches....and there is nothing at all wrong with that.....we might be losing some of the older ideas. Just because an idea is old doesn't mean its outdated.
With these bright cheerful "Pet shops" popping up all over the place its getting harder and harder to source the ingredients to actually make something yourself. Nowadays everything is plastic and comes covered in plastic on a cardboard backing.

If anyone knows any of the older birding people, now might be the time to have a chat with them and get their ideas and gadgets down on paper before they are lost forever.

Tick, tick, tick.... might be an article in this for someone to write.

[jusdeb]

Ive tried to get an old time finch breeder to go online and checkout AFF , nope only technology he wants anything to do with is his mobile ( cordless ) phone that lets him ring out from his bird room .

Have often thought of asking him if he minds me asking some questions for AFF but he doesn't remember names well anymore and is a bit of a recluse , I dont want to annoy him .

Maybe one day it might just pop up in conversation and Ill take it from there ...

[Diane]

Yes, know what you mean, quite a few dont have computers and not interested in the internet.
Good idea to drop it into the conversation, doesn't matter if he cant remember the names, not interested in names really, just the ideas and gadgets.
Good luck.

[E Orix]

Calcium Blocks the old way.
One pkt of Plaster of Paris(if still available without addatives) mix into a paste and pour into an ice cube tray.
Then put one block into the water dish,from memory (and it's going) the block would last for 3 to 4 weeks
Second method of calcium, mix a cup full of cement powder with 5 or 6 cups of coarse sand and let it set into larger blocks
useing paper cups, paper cake cups etc. Just leave it in the aviary and the birds will peck or chew it. It will also keep their beaks in shape.
There were alot of things done in the dark ages!!!! that really raise objections these days.
The biggest was having Composte Heaps in an aviary, we would put veg.scraps, seed husks, lawn clippings etc on the pile then
each day we would turn a section over with a garden fork. The birds would swarm down on it.
It lost favour because we were told that it was disasterous for our birds because they would all get internal parasites and die. So Composte Heaps went out of favour. Funny thing I never wormed my finches and my losses were small, maybe I was lucky.(this is an openning for our online Vets.
On the other hand there were some terrible tales like people putting Gouldians in a paper bag and spraying them with Pea Beau fly spray.
I am sure there are some other older statesmen/women who can add to this.

[VR1Ton]

I can vouch for the Pea Beu, don't know about the paper bag though, & compost heaps are still quite common in softbill aviares.

[gomer]

Some people still sprout their seed by throwing it on the ground each day and spraying it with water.Wonder how that is with bacteria ?

[monotwine]

Lots of the old info is very relevant to todays husbandry. Hey some things are just more available now like calcium supplements. The old aviculturist had found the need for it to be successful and did not have the resources we fortunately have now. I for one would not like to still have to make Plaster of Paris cubes. I like to see how and what they did successfully though and compare the husbandry. Some things I may not agree with / adopt as I have better products avail today, but often the old ways confirm if I am on the right path.
I agree though that it would be nice for those old ways to be recorded somehow.

I was given an old aviculture book specifically for SA keepers and had a good read. Good info is rarely outdated, products and materials may have changed but what you need pretty much stays the same. Perhaps the only thing I think was a bit was read in there. This must have been before the days of insect pate' and successful live food options, but it was recommended for successful breeding of the Pekin Robins to open the cage and let them forage for insects to feed to the young. Saying that a breeding pair would return to the nest... I don't know if I would chance that!

[Fincho162]

Unfortunately I have seen the "dark side" of compost pits in aviaries first hand.
We always used them and the birds loved them and couldn't wait for us to turn them over..............white worm, sprouted seed you name it.........
However, a series of vet autopsies after larger than normal losses of young birds made us dig them out completely...............never had gizzard worm diagnosed since and those suckers would have to be the hardest worms to get rid of completely.

Just means we finch keepers have to work that tad harder to supply them with their needs (clean sprouted seed and clean live food!!) I guess...........still lots of betterer wormers around these days compared to the "good old days".............whenever that may have been!!!!

Removing the compost pits just removed one more variable that we had little control over................

[Myzomela]

Yes, compost heaps are always a good topic for debate.

They'd be great if they weren't in the aviary getting pooped on all the time and thus becoming infected with parasites.

Still wouldn't solve the fungal issue though!

As for old information, I enjoy reading the OLD issues of avicultural magazines such as Australian Aviculture, the South Australian mag ( whose name I have forgotten, sorry) and the English magazine from the Avicultural Society.

There are some great insights in these and some of the species they had access to... well....

The Avicultural Writings of Eric Baxter and the Australian Aviculture Special Edition are 2 such locally written older publications also worth reading through.

[vettepilot_6]

I too had compost heaps with very little in way of losses...I didnt put any animal stuff in it....I have also used condys crystals (as a water disinfectant) Carbryl powder in nest boxes and corners of aviary before going on to use Diamateous Earth (works just as well)... Also used iodine salt blocks (ones used as Cow licks) .... madeira cake and peanut butter...vinegar fly bin as well as moth traps when termites were hard to get....our way of maggots was to hang meat above aviary and let maggots drop in bran before going into aviary..(didnt last long counldnt handle smell ) also had a waterfall and pond with goldfish in there too....