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This is a new area of the website. I would like to start an area of just about anything
pertaining to birds. We have all heard of "fish stories". Well, this can be the section of
"birdie tails"! Most of us have been amazed by our feathered friends in so many ways.
This is your chance to share some of those adventures.

We may want to have it on a serious note; warnings, funny stories, things we shared
with our birds. disciplines that we have tried. tricks, websites we enjoyed, you name it.

Be creative and have fun.

Birdie believe it or not.

I have been anxiously awaiting the hatching of my new canaries. Knowing that they
would be hatching any day I was keeping a careful eye on them.

The day arrived and to my surprise I looked in the nest and there is the mother canary
and along side her sits a female cordon bleu. Now, for those of you who have not
seen these two birds, the canary is at least 3 times the size of a cordon bleu. I
coaxed both of them off the eggs and sure enough a baby has hatched. The cordon
bleu just never saw such a big beautiful baby and just couldn't resist the motherly
instincts. They both happily coexisted parenting the trio of canary babies.

What is even more bizarre about this story is that the female cordon bleu will not raise
her own babies.

We all know the excitement of bring home that new bundle of feathered joy. Then
starts the name debate. With kids, and males out numbering females in our family,
things can get quite creative, and my choices can be quickly outvoted, ending up with
some of the craziest of names. In our bird family, we have Larry Bird, Snow Bird
(actually my mother's bird) (too sweet of a name of my boys) and Flip the Bird! (you
might have to think about that one for a few seconds with your mind thinking like a
teenage boy) Ha! Ha!

So with all the last name of "Bird"you would think would continue with that scenario.
No, we had exhausted that arena. We then had what my son thought was a special
needs bird. His name became "Eddie". Short for "Special Eddie" (for Special
Education) The good news for Eddie was that his only problem was being too young
and he quickly out grew all of his supposed disabilities.

I actually started to win at the naming game. The next additions to our bird family
were actually my choices. I guess the kids were growing up and could care less. So
we then added a Charlie and Nikki. ( Nikki was going to be the name I would have
given a little girl if I had ever had one.)

So, this bring us to the final dilemma. We are about to adopt (our final bird) Ha! Ha!.
It is going to be a Timneh African Grey. The naming is being left up to me. The family
has out grown that power thing of winning the name game. I'm considering Einstein,
or Al for Albert Einstein, or Timmy for Timneh African Grey. Please send me
suggestions for names. Also send names of your pets and how you arrived at their
name.

For a number of reasons at
sometime during the hobby of
raising finches, it will probably
become necessary to handfeed a
baby finch. We have learned so
much on the subject and have
gone from almost no success to
almost no losses.

I have written an article for my
friends at Ladygouldianfinch.com.
If you would like to read it, please
check out the link on the right.
The article is under Breeding and
then Handfeeding. It has 4 movies
that are great of our tame little
finches we have raised.(a big
reward for all the hard work of
hand feeding is a tame very
personable finch) Our
seedcrackers site does not have
the capabilities of movies.(The
movies can take quite a long time
to download especially if you don't
have high speed internet. (So be
patient.)

Since writing the article for
ladygouldianfinch. com we have
learned so much more.

1. You do not have to wait after
hatching for the "yolk sack" to be
absorbed. Starting soon after
hatching is best.

2. Do not thin the formula down
like the directions on the can say.
Make the first few days just
slightly more water than the
thickest directions for older birds.
Use a flat toothpick and scoop
small amounts into the new born.

3. We have not found pedialyte to
be necessary.

4. The formula should actually
collect in their crop even in the
first days. This has helped not
needing to do as many night
feeding as we had earlier thought
necessary.

5.Continue with the toothpick until
several days old, then switch to
the syringe.

6.Do not over heat the formula and
then let it cool down. I think the
probotic in the formula might be
killed in that process.

7 We have found crop problems
later as the babies should be
weaning. They do not want to
wean and there is some bubbling
up of the crop. Many have died of
this. We are now trying several
remedies for it. Mixing a little
baby applesauce into the formula
helps. Also mixing yogurt with
live acidopholisis in the formula
also helps. Some species of
finches are more prone to this
problem. Cordon bleu and
gouldians are better and owl
finches and shafttails are worse.
They seem to be missing some
ingredient from the parents.

For many who work outside the home, this regimen is not possible. A good option is
also to help supplement (give several feedings to the babies but keep them under the
parents the rest of the time) for the first few days.(then the parents can take over) This
works great with societies fostering. Societies often can not sustain baby cordon
bleus but with an early morning and late evening supplement by you, the baby can
survive. I believe some species like cordon bleus get too weak during the long nights.

I am currently feeding these four
hungry baby gouldians. The
mother decided to go back into
nesting and abandoned them at
about 2 weeks old. (She pulled
them out of the nest and pluck
their feathers in the process. They
are about 3 weeks old in this
picture. They should be self
sufficient at about 6 weeks old.

Notice the beads in the corner of
their mouths and the markings on
the roof of their mouths. Each
type of finch baby has unique
markings. That is one way of
identifying the baby when it
hatches. In a mixed aviary that
can be quite a challenge.

If you have finches and have tried to find bands for them, you have probably found
them expensive or hard to find.

We are now using coffee stir straws and they work great. It is hard to find them in

varying colors but you can cut them in varying lengths and mark on them with

permanent markers. Cut the straws in short bands size lengths and then also

lengthwise so they are open bands. We have been using them for several months

without any trouble.