subject: Breeding Finches Can Be Accomplished At Home [print this page] Breeding Finches Can Be Accomplished At Home
Once you have a finch, odd are you will want more. They are the chips of the bird world; you cannot just have one. You can go about increasing your flock through purchasing new birds, or you can decide to let nature have its way and breed your own flock. Before you jump into breeding finches there are several things you need to take into account.
The first thing to think about when breeding finches or any type of animal is the quality of the bird's bloodline; just like a brother and sister should not mate, neither should birds that are so closely related. It is best to have your male and female birds come from different families in order to assure yourself of a good, strong bloodline.
When you are breeding your finches, you need to do your best to keep track of the mating pairs. In a large flock situation, this can be difficult if not impossible. When this happens, the best thing you can do is sell or trade young birds for fresh stock. This rotation keeps new blood coming into your flock on a steady basis. Just like in nature.
Another thing to consider before breeding finches is their dietary needs. While they can get the majority of their nutritional needs from various types of millet, a varied diet is usually much healthier.
When feeding your birds you should include food that you would eat. Fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and scrambled eggs are some finch favorites. They key is making sure there is no added salt, sugar, or preservatives on anything you feed your birds. You can also mix eggshells in with the scrambled eggs for your nesting females. The added calcium helps ensure stronger eggs. Just remember that too much is not a good thing.
Finches are social birds that prefer to live in flocks in nature. However, this does not prevent them from having territorial issues at times. When breeding finches, it is your job to make sure that each nesting female has her own nest. While finches will build their nests, they will also use ones that are provided by you. Before you furnish your breeding cage, take into account how many breeding pairs you hope to have and make sure you have extra nests available so each pair can pick.
It is also vital when breeding finches that they are kept in a relatively calm area of the house. Keeping your birds warm, quiet, and well fed will help ensure that you have many baby finches hatching in a short time.
Breeding finches can be extremely easy, after all they breed just fine on their own in nature. To make a success of finch breeding does take some time and research to get it right. Getting your birds to lay eggs is the first step. After that, you get to check to see if the eggs are fertilized and then you have the incubation stage. All of this can be left up to nature or you can take matters into your own hands. Either way you opt, take time to do your research and enjoy the process of breeding finches.
