My Feathered Pets

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Nullig

Very nice indeed!

Thanks, Noel

Originally Posted by Nullig

How noisy are they? How difficult are they to keep?

They aren't very noisy at all compared to hookbilled birds, such as budgies, cockatiels, love birds, maccaws, etc. Each finch species vocalizes in a different way, and mostly they cheep or peep. They sure make the house alive with sound, though, especially when we're moving about the living room where they're kept.

Finches are of the sparrow family. The ones we keep are mostly African species and they're very small, about a third the size or smaller than chickadees.

Hard to keep? Not if you buy birds in good health, and feed and water them daily making sure water/food containers are washed daily in hot soapy water. Vitamins in the water are also helpful.

They also need a cage large enough to fly around in, though many people just buy the small cages where they don't get any excercise Keeping too many birds in one cage can be another problem. Life span can be 3 to 7 years, depending on age of the finch when you buy it and it's overall health at that time. Of course, they need daily and weekly care to remain healthy.

Do I find them difficult to keep? Not anymore, but at the beginning, when any unfamiliar animal is a mystery, so we found then somewhat difficult.

When we moved several months ago, we could have chosen to keep a large reef where the finches currently live, but we opted to keep the finches. Fish and corals are great, but you can't beat the sounds of finches day in and day out

HTH.