So you are thinking about adopting Zebra Finches? 

  Here is what you need to know and setup: 

Housing:

Whether you chose an aviary or a cage, you should always try to make it as big as possible. The minimum size for a cage that is to be used all year round is 24 x 16 x 16 inches, but yours birds will appreciate any extra space you can give them! You can line the cgae with good old fashioned newspaper or try special cage liners that have an adhesive service so all the debris sticks to it. We use corn cob litter for our aviary, but this will be too messy in small cage as the brids will toss it out onto the floor. 

Make sure you have a place to put the cage away from drafts. All birds will be nervous if you change their spot too many times, so try to get things set up before they arrive. Finches will be talking all day long, but they do like human company. So find a room where they can see your family periodically but won't disrupt your homework and office chores. 

Furniture: 

Apart from a cage or an aviary, you will need some pots for food and a drinker for water. Since zebra finches like to bathe, you should also have something for them to bathe in. We don't reccommend you breed your finches...unless you want ALOT of them, but a nest basket is still reccommended so your birds have a plce to "hide" when they get scared. You also want to provide them with a few perches, when you pick out your cage, buy perches the same day so you can make sure they will attach and fit the bars of the cage. 

Diet: 

The zebra finch diet consist of a seed mixture which you can puchase at any pet store. But please buy the CAPTIVE finch diet, not the wild kind...the vitamin content is much different. Do not be fulled by a full seed dish, your finches will leave the shells of the seeds in the dish, so toss it away and give them fresh food everyday. It is important that zebra finches always have access to food. If they are too fat, then they need more exercise, not less food. 

In addition to this, zebra finches like many greens, such as dandelion leaves and chickweed. Millet sprays are also appreciated. Make sure you get any greens from a non polluted area. For instance picking dandelion leaves from the roadside is not a good idea...the grocery stores do sell bunches of dandelion leaves which are also quite tasty in a salad or cooked like spinich. 

In general birds should always have access to some form of calcium. Usually cuttlefish bone and/or sea shells are very popular, but so are egg shells from regular chickens. If you do use egg shells I would suggest microwaving the shells for a few minutes (or heating them in a regular oven if you don't have a microwave) in order to kill any bacteria (Salmonella). Let the shells cool off before feeding them to the birds. 

Protection: 

Small birds can get mites. So buy a mite cage protector which will come in a disk you attach to the outside of the cage. Follow the directions on the box, you should only need to replace it 3 or 4 times a year. 

You can buy vitamin drops to put in the water, but if you use a quality bird seed, the vitamins will already by mixed in. 

If you house your birds near a window, you will not need to give them any special lighting. But if they don't get any sunlight, we suggest you give them a UV light blub on a timer. Sunlight, be it natural or aritfical, is needed to have healthy birds.   

Cleaning: 

If you use newpaper or a cage liner, change it every few days. If you go with the corn cob, once a month will suffice. 

The water dish should be scrubbed every other day to avoid mildew and the food dish should be scrubbed once a week. To avoid contamination, feed seeds in one dish and any fresh foods in a second which should be cleaned before you replace the food. 

Do a monthly cleaning of the entire cage. Usually, you can leave the birds in the cage while you clean it. Take out all the perches and soak in warm soapy water. Do not use bleach unless you think you have a mite problem. If you use bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse! Bleach can make your birds very ill, so use it very sparingly. Wash down all surfaces of the bird cage with warm water and when dry, reinstall the perches. 

Need more information? 

There are a great number of websites about finches, but you will find a lot of contradictory information.

When in doubt, call a vet!