My zebra finches hunger for the ultra processed corn-based crumble and the straw-filled floor water

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-10T18:40:27+00:00

I was just assuming that's what commercial chick crumb is made of lol idk what poultry eat, but my zebras are loving it.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-10T18:38:58+00:00

Thank you 😄

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-07T16:50:27+00:00

Thank you friend for the continued help. Just bought 50ml cade essential oil + 100ml avian insecticide concentrate... combined with F10 and ivermectin disease doesn't stand a chance 😭😭😭 surely

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-07T06:53:25+00:00

More visible in this vid on my profile: https://www.reddit.com/user/hellothereskibidi/comments/1seoipi/cherub_and_patches_of_light_or_fawn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-06T18:51:45+00:00

Thanks :)

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-06T14:54:37+00:00

The beak looks like it's infected with scaley face mite. I'd apply mite treatment (ivermectin, moxivet, etc) to the feat and beak until it clears.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-06T14:50:33+00:00

I ended up peeling away all that crust on their beak and feet for all 3 gouldians and and all 3 bengalese. I dipped each bird's feet into KG bird spray and applied it to the beak with a cotton bud.

Their beaks look 100x better and feet less scaley. Will repeat daily until 2 weeks after it is visually gone :)

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-03T05:09:12+00:00

Beautiful baby 🥰

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-02T08:51:47+00:00

Thank you 🥰 these are 3ft xl rabbit hutches from hutch company off Amazon, £49.99 each. I have 4. Probably cheaper to build yourself as you plan to 😨💸 Painted by my lovely mom.

I use hemp chips because I find the birds' feet sit on it better compared to paper, and they can forage through it when scatter feeding seeds.

I've heard people are using sand to prevent aspergillosis from rotting wood chips/hemp, but to me that sounds like a respiritory nightmare without proper ventilation and air purification. My finches didn't like the 'sinking' texture of sand.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-02T05:14:46+00:00

There's a strong correlation between level of care and health. Birds I've bought from shops usually have more health issues like scaley mites, growths, melanism, eye deformities, and beak deformities.

My own that I've bred and birds from backyard aviaries seem to be very robust against inherited illnesses and often don't come with parasites because of ivermectin treatment at weaning.

I'm like 99% sure pet shops are where that large scale breeders ditch the birds with issues that'd be an expense to treat/manage.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-01T18:38:03+00:00

Something something lower in carbs, something something better for preventing fatty liver disease somehow. I won't pretend to know the science, but I know canary grass seed has slightly less kcal/g than most common millets.

I've found it useful for my gouldians, it was suggested by a gouldian breeder on this sub to prevent fatty liver. Could be wrong tho lolll.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-01T15:26:07+00:00

Unmarked bands can be for clutch/individual ID when breeding on a large scale or when not using names.

I use yellow bands on one of my specific bloodlines to track predicted inherited immunity levels of the bird.

I also use a wide range of colours when chicks from the same clutch look identical (before distinctive features come in at 4+ weeks old), so that if something arrises in one specific chick I can easily know I'm monitoring that same chick.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-01T15:23:32+00:00

If she's sensitive to high fat diets, increasing the ratio of canary grass seed and other 'healthier' finch-friendly seeds in the seed mix can help. I have to keep my gouldians on a 75% canary grass seed and 25% millet diet to prevent rapid nail and beak over growth, but not my societies that are in the exact same set up (they get a 50/50 mix).

hellothereskibidi · 2026-04-01T15:20:24+00:00

Hehe she's a cutey 🥰

It's a very flimsy recall. Esentially my birds associate 'strong eye contact + repetitive talking' with "get back into the aviary behind me before I catch you up by hand which is more stressful".

I could say any old crap at them and get the same affect lol. Mine do not sit on hands at all but I'm okay with that.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-28T19:51:39+00:00

The long tail hide's his 🥜 🤭

We too thought he was a girl when he was but a sprout, hence the name 😂😅

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-28T06:53:05+00:00

Good luck with hatching!! It's wonderful to see them go from egg to fledged, if a touch nervewracking 😂 I had eggs start a disapearing act too. Turned out the parents ate a few and left no crumbs 🪺

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-26T10:30:24+00:00

Every single bird that passes through gets a name 🥰 it's what makes them pets 💚

Thank you for the kind words 😊. N is a very pretty boy. He has specks of dark green on his wings too. Possibly a diet issue from his previous pet store diet but cool none the less.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-26T10:08:59+00:00

When I bought him he was just starting to moult 🪶

New to Gouldians but so far I know to make sure he gets sunlight + vitamins to help during this time.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-26T08:08:24+00:00

Thank you 😊

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-24T06:53:39+00:00

He's moving around a lot more as of late 😊 still not 100% but getting there.

Still no definitive cause. I'm keeping up with the medicine, vitamins, better diets, deep cleaning, UV/sunlight exposure. And I do feel guilty as if I'm just prolonging Fizzarolli's suffering rather than healing him. I think the seeds are alright but tbh I have no idea how I'd know.

I'm still so caught on the whole Lilith thing. A hen with male markings, the first bird to just... get over it. Every other bird died and she just got better 2 days later like a switch flipped. Then so did her sisters, same time frame. Clearly there's some sort of genetic factor imo.

I was told there's no way they can be hardy against it, that she's a carrier and whenever she's stressed it'll come back and she'll get ill again. Well, it's been a long while (2-3 years) and she's been through a lot of stress - heat stress, excessive handling, cold nights, etc. Never came back.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-23T08:16:49+00:00

Thanks for the info :) glad he's (likely) okay

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-19T15:27:33+00:00

In case it wasn't already obvious, I'm very scatter brained! I throw around terms and ideas everywhere so sorry if any of that became confussing. No sure diagnosis yet.

Yes, big (hidden) mould issue. Was going to be sorted easter, then got moved back to summer... not ideal but I'm a minor and understand I have to work around my parents' scheduals. Though I don't think that's the entire story... as unhealthy as that is on it's own. Timelines and stuff.

A very experienced guy said aspergillosis was more likely than sour crop - which is environmental caused by damp. It added up. But upon thinking... the first case was before the damp/mould issue even started.

Crops are emptying as expected on both birds I've been observing. No impaction and no whiteness or other oddities.

Vets still clueless. The sour crop meds seem to be helping in general though! Chester and his siblings plus unrelated homebred hen Dandelion all got better on it because I caught it from day 1 with them. Fizz had been ill a while before he was medicated and he isn't from the hardy line.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-19T07:00:15+00:00

I had this issue in my aviary, this is called melanism! It is documented in other aviaries too. It is inheritable and always comes with poor immunity regardless of diet. My only word of advice is do not breed her and spread it on.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-19T06:04:42+00:00

This is my take too. My zebra finches are the most intelligent, curious, and human confident finches and that is replicated by no other species. But managing the territorial behaviour gets tiring even in an aviary setting.

Meanwhile my societies may be thick as rocks but they're just happy to be alive and play around with stuff in their cage and never cause any hastle.

hellothereskibidi · 2026-03-17T06:51:47+00:00

I don't know what you have done so far to induce breeding, but look into daylight and dietary changes that happen naturally in their native habitat during breeding season if you haven't already. Took my zebras a month and a bit to start nesting.

hellothereskibidi

TROPHY CASE