Zebra finches please Help?
My son wants to go professional with his zebra finch breeding trade. But He said that he needs like a shed or garage type
thing so he can enjoy many small cages to breed alot of finches.
Any Ideas??
He needs a heated room. Finches are so cheap it is hard to believe he could even discharge for their feed by selling them.
He will need capital to start with to buy cages, etc, and they the heat and lights (full spectrum) for the bird room.
This does not nouns like a good idea.
Zebra finches are flock birds and do best when a number of pairs are together. So I use several aviary type cages which are 3ft x 6ft x 5 ft elevated, rather than boxes which need constant cleaning. They are beatiful little birds to examine in the wild and it sends sudders down my back to see them surrounded by small box cages. Give them as much room as possible.
Good luck.
Answers: Will he be breeding for specific traits? Zebra finches are colony breeders. They do better in one significant aviary, not many smaller ones. The ideal breeding setup for zebra finches would be:
One large basic cage for the breeding: A minimum of 8 feet wide by 12 foot long by about 8 feet (or so) tall. Then you would have need of to have a cage for the extra females and a pen for the extra males. These two aviaries should be a minimum of 6-8 feet wide by 10-12 foot long and about 8 feet (or so) tall. The males will confrontation over the females if there are not enough females for adjectives the males, that is why you need two cages, one for the females and one for the males. You will also stipulation to keep them separated so you don't have to worry more or less selling a female that is sitting on eggs or currently raising babies. You will also have need of to be able to keep track of which babies come from which parents to avoid too much inbreeding which can cause birth defect. A couple of the most common are cross beak and splay foot. The finches will also do better if they are in a more automatic environment. Plant shrubbery around the sides of the aviaries or have the aviaries near or under trees. Mine is set up lower than an orange tree and has cape honeysuckle plant growing on one side. They also necessitate a varied diet. Mine receive a basic finch seed mix near several types of seed as well as all the fresh greens they can drink. Fresh greens such as weeds from our garden (no pesticides or poisons or fertilizers), parsley, sprouted seeds, the occasional shredded apple or carrot, romaine lettuce, trimmings from the cape honeysuckle, and grass clippings from the meadow or pieces of bermuda grass for eating and nesting. They also have access to all sorts of insects since they are within an outdoor aviary. They love the tiny little worms that are in the dirt when I go out to turn the bottom of the cage every couple of days. They can only just wait for me to get out of the cage so they can jump down and peck through the dirt to see what I have turned up for them. I provide grass cuttings/clippings for nest building as well as pieces of undyed natural burlap.They own shelves to build a nest on as well as several small hollow logs that I hung in the cage. They prefer to enjoy at least a base to build on and will nest in the logs or against a piece of yap sitting on a shelf before they build on their own somewhere else. You can get or make small wooden nesting boxes, but I close to the look of the natural logs. We collect wood for our fireplace so I just keep an eye out for chunks that are rotting inside or can be hollowed out. Some of the thicker yap pieces can also be used. It is very difficult to make a living on raising zebra finches. They freshly aren't that expensive of birds. I get $3 - $5 per bird if I am lucky. My flock does NOT pay for itself, much smaller quantity allow me to make money on raising zebra finches. Raising zebra finches is better as a hobby, then as a full time available job. If he were to breed finches in small cages within a shed or a garage, he would not get good quality hearty babies. Mine are good quality finches which is why I can sell them to our local pet store. I've even have mine shipped to canada (I'm in Arizona) because they were healthy ample to survive the trip. Most chain pet stores such as Petsmart or Petco will not buy from an individual. They have suppliers that they budge through. Please tell your son to enjoy his HOBBY of raising zebra finches and not try to "jump professional". It won't pay.
