BREEDING FINCHES 101
PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED
My birthday finches are really happy up here in my study. (Those pictured are not mine. I’ll try to get a picture of mine before long.) The cage takes up about half of one wall and they fly happily about all day. We bought six nests like the one in the picture for them to lay their eggs. We lined them up along the back wall of the cage and it looks like a dorm hallway. In fact, with everything that’s going on in those nests it is exactly like a dorm!
This has been quite an education. Watching the six males and the six females pair up reminded me way too much of my dating days. The bigger males got all the cute females and the littler guys are either too shy to invite a female up to their place or the females that are left have rejected them! Can you imagine being rejected by the rejects?
Four of our apartments are currently in use. One couple got busy right away and they are sitting on six eggs in apartment number one. Yes, both the mom and dad are sitting on the eggs. In fact, they spend a lot of time sitting in there together. Apartments 2, 5, and 6 are also occupied and are incubating eggs.
The zebra finches have refused to marry within their own race. They have chosen women from the light colored finches. However, it appears that the zebra females have not been chosen by the white guys.
My lovely wife has demanded that I put little marriage certificates above each of the breeding apartments. She doesn’t want anyone to think we are endorsing free sex. I asked her if she wanted me to do little weddings for them too.
They make a lot of noise. No, not just then; all the time. They sound like little squeaky toys or something. Mia says they sound like a bunch of miniature seagulls. That’s a pretty good description. It’s a good thing I have pretty good powers of concentration or they would drive me nuts.
My question is, what do I do when these eggs start hatching? I’ve been researching this problem on the internet and I’m just not sure I want to get too deeply involved in the results of finchy romance! What kind of grandfather am I? At this rate I’ll be overrun with little finches in just a few weeks! Oh well, we’ll see what happens. Casa la parrot has offered to give me $5 for each baby finch. Something feels really wrong about that! Doesn’t that seem kind of sleazy to you?
2 Comments:
Mrs. Yak and I had Zebra Finches once. A pair. I loved their little buzz-like call. It reminded me of the Red Breasted Nuthatches and their very similar call in the pine forest as I was stalking the Wily Wapati.
They had chicks. Believe me, it gets MUCH louder. When those little devils are hungry, which is pretty much all the time, they can put out volumes of noise. We had one clutch. You will have six. Are you out of your flippin' mind?!
When the little ones got bigger we sold them, parents, cage and all to the lowest bidder. (Free.)
I think it's just fantastic that you are raising these adorable birds. What wonderful times you and your family will have as you watch them grow! Please be sure to keep all of us, your blog community, updated as to their progress. I'm wondering if you have considered a web cam so we can see them live? In any case, good luck!
Sincerely, Yak.
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