Finches tend to fly lengthwise and they feel more comfortable in a long cage, so we use cages no less than 24”W x 16”L x 16”H (60cm x 40cm x 40cm) per one pair. For our birds, we prefer wooden perches, and newspapers serve perfectly to cover the bottom of the cage.

To avoid potential problem with insects like mites, lice, flies, and roaches, we spray the birds, the cages, and the whole bird room with Avian Insect Liquidator. One treatment per month is quite enough to keep the cages clean.

Full spectrum lighting is necessary for the bird’s calcium metabolism, and can be provided by unfiltered sunlight or by a full spectrum fluorescent bulb. As ordinary routine photoperiod of 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of darkness works well. Arranging 15-minute “twilight” period helps our birds to settle for sleeping.

Clean drinking water should always be available for the finches. Water quality is of special concern. Aviclens is a good preservative that can be used to keep water fresh. 

It is important to wash the dishes once a week with soap to avoid potential multiplication of bacteria and yeast in the water supply.

Our finches love to bathe. This helps the birds to keep their plumage clean and in excellent condition. During breeding season it is a good way of getting moisture back to the nest filled with eggs.

About three teaspoons of seed mix containing Japanese millet, canary, Siberian millet, finch millet, white millet, anise, sesame, red millet, thistle, flax, rape, and steel cut oats is enough for everyday’s feeding a pair of finches.

Spray millet is a great delicious that make the birds happy.

 Greens are an excellent source of vitamins and trace elements, and they provide roughage which is essential for digestion. Greens can be added to a finch’s diet in either fresh or dry form. Green leaves can be woven into the cage bars or given chopped or grated, and mixed into the soft food. We serve a variety of greens, vegetables, fruits separately: lettuce, dandelion, white cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, cucumber, broccoli, grated carrot, and apple.

The soaked seed is very valuable when the birds are feeding their nestlings. Sprouting radically changes the substance of the seeds. It has been shown they have increased levels of proteins and vitamins and a decrease in fat content in compare to dry seed. The sprouts can be served as soon as they start to appear from the seeds but also when they are grown.

Dried greens like Twin Beaks Aviary's Herb Salad that contains the leaves, roots and bark of 22 different healing herbs are also nutritious and offer yet another texture to birds.

Egg shell and cuttlebone, a source of calcium, are needed every day but even more when birds are starting to lay eggs. Bird charcoal is an excellent nutritional supplement that aids in digestion, we offer it once every three months.

From time to time, it is worth to enrich finches’ ration by adding soft food with multi-vitamins supplement such as Daily Essentials 3. Soft food is an extra source of protein in an easily digestible form. There are a lot of recipes for preparing soft food on base of boiled eggs. Usually, I make a batch of grated hard boiled eggs, mixed with powdered egg shell and some Daily Essential 3. Some dry egg-food (I prefer Orlux Eggfood ) can be added to the mixture until it reaches a crumbly consistency. It is also useful to mix in some finely grated carrots and/or broccoli. This mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. 

 Free living finches hunt insect which are good source of protein. For cage finches, mealworm, the larval stage of the beetle Tenebrio molitor,  is an appropriate replacement available in most pet stores.   

Convenient in handling, Orlux Insect Mix is a mixture of dried insects. This product is a good additive that can be given separately or mixed with the soft food; it is especially beneficial during the breeding season.