Finches, most specifically Zebra finches are a joy to have as pets and if you've fallen in love with a pair passing by a pet store window; you're not far off from purchasing these birds and keeping them as your own.
However, owning them is different from breeding them.
In a sense, both would be easy to do since you just have to find the right pair and they pretty much breed on their own.
If you're keeping your birds in an aviary, your flock will quickly grow.
Before their numbers get out of hand, you first have to know the basics.
It has been established that finches should always be purchased in pairs.
It doesn't have to be a male and a female Zebra finch but if breeding these finches is your goal, you need to get one from each gender.
The males are distinguished with a black breast bar, orange cheek patches, chestnut colored flanks that are speckled with white, the scale looking pattern under the chin and the red beak.
The female Zebra finches lack these markings and if you need any more proof, they have lighter colored beaks.
If you're breeding Zebra finches, you need to nourish your parent birds correctly.
The proper diet consists of seed mix, fruits, leafy veggies, and egg.
Millet is a good addition to your finches' diets as well as hard boiled eggs and that includes the shell.
This gives them the protein they need.
As for fruits, you can feed your birds slices of melon, grapes and so on.
Don't forget to give your birds clean and fresh water.
When the eggs hatch, you have to provide working parent birds with more food and clean water than normal.
The average sized cage is large enough space for breeding these finches.
But as soon as you have more than two of them, you'll need to get something larger.
The ideal breeding cage is about 2.
5 to 3 feet square.
Remember that the bigger the space, the better.
This space is going to be used to exercise and fly around.
With regard to the nest, the most popular kind is a wooden nest box.
This can be installed inside the cage.
The inside of the nest can be lined with shredded tissue or strands of burlap.
Just make sure the shreds aren't too fine and thin.
When you're breeding Zebra finches, you'll soon get eggs.
Usually, these are laid once in a day.
When the last egg is laid, incubation starts and you'll have about 13 days before it starts to hatch.
You should be expecting two to five eggs from your parent finches but sometimes, even up to eight eggs are laid by some pairs.
While incubating, the parent birds take their turns.
If you want to see if the eggs are fertile, they will turn dark in color at the end of the first week.
You just have to wait for 13 days and you'll have little baby finches in your collection.
Breeding Zebra finches is a fun and exciting process for young and old.