Monday, September 1, 2014
Lady Gouldian finch
The Lady Gouldian Finch is a relatively small bird measuring about 12 cm from head to tail. Many mutations exist such as black head, purple breast, white breast, lilac breast, blue body, red head, yellow head, seagreen, yellow body, dilute-backed, blue breasted,cinnamon, lutino.
The Black Headed Finch
The black head. Personally I love the black head finch, the coloring is brought out by the black head. In the wild there are three black heads to one red head finch. A black head male paired with a red head hen will give you black headed females. But I will talk more about the breeding in another blog.
The Purple Breasted Gouldian Finch
There are lighter and darker purple breasted finches. In this photo you can see all the head colors.
Now that you know that there are large variety colors in finches you may want one. They are easy to look after and do not require a lot of attention such as a parrot.
There is finch seed available but if you feed your bird some vegetables and some greens and the occasional egg your bird will live a lot longer. The average life span of a finch that is just feed seeds is about 5 - 10, however they can live longer if feed well, some finches have lived to 15 years and in the rare cases even 20 years.
The total House Finch population across North America is estimated between 267 million and 1.4 billion individuals. They are very popular as pets.
The Finch Cage
The cage can be as simple as a wooden box with square wire in front. Make sure however there are no sharp edges that can harm your bird. As a rule the cage should have about a meter (40 inch) of floor space. Cages can be bought a pet store. You can buy beautiful cages to enhance your surroundings or just plain cages. Just ask for a finch cage as the vertical wire must be close together to prevent your bird from escaping.
The Diet of your Lady Gouldian Finch
As I have said before you can feed your finch just seeds but that is not healthy for them in the long run. They need a varied and complete diet. Put a small piece of lettuce on the floor to munch on or grapes.
If you have bought your finch from a breeder that has only given them seeds it will take a while before they try eating other foods, just give it time and once they start they will enjoy it more than you know. It would be better though if you started them off with some cooked rice, some left over from diner. Put a little seeds in with the rice and give it too them to try. If they do not eat the food try the next day. When they have accepted the treat allow them a few days to enjoy the rice then move onto phase two and add chopped grape or corn. Just keep adding new food after a few days and soon your finch will learn to trust that what is in his food bowl is edible and delicious.
In breeding season if you want to start breeding finches they need a little more protein in their diet, so just before breeding season start to give them boiled egg. You could also feed them maggots and mealworms which can be bought at a pet shop. You can keep on giving this to them right through till after the chick has hatched as the parents will feed this to them, and the chicks will grow strong in no time.
Below is a video I took from YOUTUBE
It is a cute video of Lady Gouldian finches bathing, enjoy!
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