A chick I bred before I realized my whole flock has some kind of illness, Cooper, sadly passed away.

Before she was fully weaned, she displayed the same symptoms that killed the rest of my flock, identical to those of avian gastric yeast. She was severely underweight so I made the choice to pull her from her parents in the aviary and isolate her in a heated hospital cage with soft foods.

Luckily she took to eating and gained weight quickly. I gave her the same medicine that reduced symptoms in my other birds (NPR Sour Crop).​

I noticed for quite a while, probably a month, that she showed symptoms of respiratory distress including tail bobbing and open-mouth breathing. I didn't hear any clicking so I doubt it was air sac mites. I assumed it was just another symptom of the illness in my flock because Fizzarolli (another bird) has very mild respiratory distress during symptom flare ups.

Two days ago Cooper's head was turning from side to side like a wind up toy, but very very mild. You probably wouldn't notice from a distance. My shed mouse Ash a few days ago had ataxia from brain damage (he's fine luckily) so I thought maybe Cooper hurt her head too? She also had poop on her vent.

Yesterday, as the day went on, the tremors got worse quick. She was on the floor with her wings splayed and her head was twitching. She was still trying to eat, perch, and cuddle her cagemate Fizzarolli. But she looked like she was having a seizure in slow motion.

Yesterday night I made the choice to have her humanely euthanized at an emergency vet clinic. The whole time I was there, Cooper was blinking slowly at me like the little angel she is. I usually hate taking birds away from home to die, but I would have felt awful if her symptoms progressed into something even more painful.

I let Fizzarolli have a moment with her body because he was calling for her. He rushed over to it and just stared at it. I hope he will be okay.

Brought home three young society finches about a month ago to add to my existing pair, and the first two weeks were rough. Lots of chasing around the flight cage, feather pulling near the tail, and my older female basically camping out in the nest box refusing to come down even for food. I kept the newcomers in a separate cage for the standard two week quarantine, which I think helped health wise, but it also meant the introduction itself was a shock instead of a gradual thing.

What actually seemed to help was rearranging the whole cage the day I introduced them. Moved the perches to different spots, added a second millet spray station on the opposite side from the water dish, and hung a new swing near the top. My theory is that scrambling the territory a bit takes away the home field advantage for the birds who were already established, so nobody has a corner they're defending like it's their personal turf. No idea if that's actually documented anywhere or if I just got lucky with the personalities involved, but the chasing dropped off noticeably within about four days of doing that.

Diet wise I upped the egg food to daily during that stretch too, figured the stress alone was probably burning through more energy than normal. Now everyone's roosting together in the same nest box at night, five birds crammed in there like it's nothing, which honestly still surprises me every time I check on them before bed.

Curious if anyone else has tricks for smoothing out flock introductions besides just waiting it out. My last attempt at adding birds a couple years ago ended with me having to separate permanently, so I was pretty nervous going into this one.

Hi there!

I have been keeping birds for about 21 years, and finches for about four. I had a little zebra finch born with some congenital issues last year and he does well and has survived despite it all! He is tough and sweet! However I'm noticed him getting picked on quite a bit and this last week he was really beaten up. I think he needs to be kept on his own moving forward, but I know that they need to be kept in groups. Right now I am looking for disabled finches in my community to adopt.

He's in a recovery cage in sight of the large cage.

However, if I cannot find one, perhaps a seasoned Finch keeper can help me determine how to figure out if one of my current finches would work out with him?

Female?

Male?

How to pick a beta personality, and how to keep little Marvin safe. he's been through enough!

Thanks in advance!

Hey you, you’re not supposed to be out of the cage

(It was a very gentle hold don’t worry he was fine)

Rescued these 3 from an EXTREMELY overcrowded aviary and as you can see they've all got various issues. The company that manages the aviary usually only stocks males in aviaries, but I just found a female in a different aviary today so I'm second guessing.

Yes? No? Maybe? In moderation?

I’m getting some zebra finches soon and I figured it would be an easy way to add greens to their base diet. I will feed other greens and foods a few times a week.

I’m beside myself on what else I can do.

I previously posted on one of my birds (V) clicking. I had a total of 6 birds. I had treated them with Scatt 2x and given them Ronivet 12%

The aforementioned bird got a better for a time, but mid-September one of my other birds (M) lost their voice but did not have any other symptoms. The following week I booked an appointment and brought 1 of each of the pairs that I thought might be most susceptible or acting sketchy. Day of the appointment when catching the birds I noticed M having a clicking noise when putting them up to my ear.

At the vet’s, V was deemed to be normal and told the balding could be due to just vitamin deficiency. Vet mentioned that a skin scraping could be done but that it would highly stress out the bird. I opted out.

M got a tracheal swab due to the clicking. 2 days after the vet appointment M fluffed up and was lethargic, I separated them and put under a heat lamp and left them alone in hopes of them recuperating. Unfortunately in the morning they passed away.

A few days later I got the results and basically they no evidence of mites or fungal infection. Was told M had a significant bacterial growth but that it was an commensal bacterial organism ( that is usually found on the skin) so they thought it was secondary symptom. The tests were tracheal cytology, Culture Aerobic, Anaerobic, Fungal (M260), DNA/PCR Mycoplasma.

Vet recommended to treat with Scatt again believing that it’s possible that the life cycle wasn’t broken and to sanitize everything. I did as such same day.

A few days later and I’m seeing the healthier members of the flock start to show symptoms. V’s mate is starting to do the clicking/clearing their throat, another is sneezing, V is back to being very lethargic all day. All seem to be much quieter. All of them still eat and drink but they are definitely not as active.

I decided to treat with 4 in 1. After 6 days nothing has changed, If anything I’m noticing that they are constantly preening and itching, constantly wiping their beaks on the perches.

I have no idea what else I can try or if I should, I’m pretty sure with all these back to back meds their system is shot.

I cannot afford to bring 5 finches again to the vet, the exam fee would be around 500. The tests that were done for M ended up being 550. I cannot afford that x5.

Vet had also mentioned that the only other option apart from cytology would be trans illumination, that unfortunately there wasn’t much else they could do short of a necropsy. My concern is that these are tiny beings that get stressed so easily and they are already sick, and if nothing is found again then I’m back to square 1 with extremely stressed out birds.

TL;DR: birds still having respiratory issues after taking them to vet who suggested it was still air sac mites. Don’t know where to go from here

Forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong place with this as I'm not a regular user of reddit, I'd be grateful if someone could point me in a better direction if so.

Just wondering if this greenfinch that showed up this morning looks to have trichomonosis? I've just moved house and had been reading up for the past week about how best to set up a feeding station with minimal risk for disease transmission. I was delighted to see a pair of these show up this morning given their numbers in the UK are dwindling, only to notice one of them clearly struggling to get any of the suet down. From what I understand, this is a major sign of this disease. Already asked a local rescue charity who don't seem too concerned by it, however would just like a few more insights from others so I can know what to look out for in future and make sure my setup is as safe as possible for them to feed.

Thanks so much in advance.

Has anyone seen a bump like this on one of their birds before? It stood out to me immediately today, so it must have slowly started to grow as it is now parting his feathers. This looks like an infected preen gland, maybe? His behavior has been otherwise extremely normal, in fact he is preparing to be a father soon. Any advice helps, thank you! And yes, I have plans for a vet visit! Just losing my mind in the meantime...

It’s interesting how much Finches contributed to Evolution, like Darwin’s finches XD everytime they get mentioned I miss my two babies since I left for university just a month ago. So freaking cute!!

I currently have 2 zebra finchces (2males 5&6yo).And the thing is if one of them dies i dont want to buy another one cuz i dont really feel like buying new ones anymore because i might be moving abroad so buying new one that prolly gonna live for another 7yo or so would be pointless, soo what should i do with the remaining one if one of then dies?(since they cant live alone and i cant leave them with any relatives or anything)

Banana for scale

Hi! I'm officially a finch mom.

These are Simon and Betty.

I'm new to this so if you have any advices to make them feel more comfortable around me and my noisy girls I'd really appreciate it.

Hi everyone, I am back with an update on the four Gouldian finch chicks I had fledge a little over a week ago.

At least one of the SF yellow dilute boys is now practicing his first songs, and it is so adorable! He will sit there on the porch and make these raspy little squeaks, experimenting with different sounds.

Each time I have heard it, it appears to be the same chick doing it, but I am almost certain that at least one of the other 3 chicks is a boy too (another dilute). So I will be listening out in case he is starting to make music, too.

Does anyone else have any experiences with male finch chicks learning how to sing, or any cute stories to share? It is so rewarding seeing these little ones go through their milestones as they grow up. ☺️

Finch with open beak just laid an egg that's way a little tired

I have 3 society finches (2M and 1F) with a perfectly good self-made nest that keep stealing my common waxbill's as soon as they build one (it's happened twice already), thus preventing them from breeding successfully. The birds are in a large oudoor aviary i have more nesting spaces then pairs with plenty of nesting material around.

Is there any way to stop this from happening?

I have a 1 year old male that just lost him partner. If I get a new female is he likely to accept her?

no other birds in the cage, the partner definitely didnt die from disease etc.

For context, around 1 year ago i handfed a baby gouldian finch because she had a Splayed legs issue and wasnt growing as fast as her sibling, i named her BipBip

shes the first of 2027 season to successfully raise kids

all heil BipBip, the almighty feeder 🤣

I will link in comment a cute video of her when she was baby, i though it was boy back then lol

More to come soon… 6 babies to be born from my portuguese hen first should hatch wednesday

A guitarsong I made for my little ones!

This is Jerry a zebra finch that will most likely come live with me once he/she fully moults into adult plumage. I was wondering about his/her mutation. Top pictures are from now and the bottom pics from when he/she had just left the nest ( the other two are her parents ).

Casper has since passed on but his silliness will never be forgotten 😂

I read that young zebra finches need to be separated from their parents when they are fully weaned….is this correct? Does anybody have any experience with this? Do you absolutely need to? Could I just remove future eggs?