Bird Care for Finches

Finches are attractive family house pets that do not require a great deal of care. Some minor daily chores such as feeding and cleaning the cages are enough to make them happy. They make great pets for active people or young children not quite ready to handle a pet. Finches are fun for anyone who enjoys watching the playful antics of active, colorful birds.

  1. Feeding

    • Finch diets are easy to maintain. Generally, a good-quality commercial finch food along with a millet spray is all you need to provide them on a daily basis. Always give your finch fresh water daily. During molting cycles, include chopped hard-boiled eggs in their diet for added calcium. If you breed them, you must give them liquefied boiled egg yolk and mealworm, in some cases, to feed their young.

    Handling

    • Finches do not like handling. They make great visual pets and produce a pleasingly soft chirp that is soothing. Their hands-off attitude appeals to busy individuals, who like sharing their homes with living creatures, but do not have a desire to interact socially with them. Some breeders hand-raise baby finches to make them more accepting of human touch. Even these birds do not enjoy handling but will be more likely to accept necessary care handling for health or movement purposes, making them easier to manage as pets.

    Housing

    • Finches are easy to keep in cages. They are not destructive like their larger cousin the parrot, which is likely to chew on wood, so cages can be made of just about any material. The bars must be close together. Finches are small birds that can slip through tiny spaces. Make sure the cage you purchase does not have any space larger than ½-inch wide. A bigger consideration is the size of the cage. Even though finches are small, they are very active and need room to fly. Add as many perches as you can without taking away flight room. Because finches do not socially interact with their human keepers, it is a good idea to have more than one in a cage for company. Unlike some other pet bird species, finches prefer to nest at night and are aggressive about making nests in their cages. Their cage should be roomy enough to allow for a nest, and you should always give them plenty of nest-building materials such as thread, cotton, rope, cloth swatches and even hair from brushes around the house. Clean your finch's cage daily to keep it free of droppings and the dust that dried droppings create.