Finches for Dummies, 2nd Edition

Features:

• Feeding your finches and keeping them healthy
• Choosing the ideal enclosure and supplies for your finches
• Adjusting to finch life with children or other pets
• Breeding your finches

Table of Contents:

1. Finches: More Than Just Pretty

2. Are Finches Your Perfect Companions?

3. Knowing What to Expect from Finches

4. Selecting Species of Companion Finches

5. Choosing Finches: Exploring Your Options

6. Canary

7. Cordon-bleu finch

8. European goldfinch

9. Gouldian finch

10. Java finch

11. Owl finch

12. Society finch

13. Spice finch

14. Whydah

15. Zebra finch

16. Finding and Selecting Finches

17. Choosing Finches: Exploring Your Options

18. The age of your new finches

19. Gender

20. Previously homed finches

21. Finding a Finch

22. Pet shops and bird shops

23. Swap meets and flea markets

24. The classifieds

25. Breeders and experts

26. Bird shows

27. Searching for a Healthy Finch

28. Eyes

29. Nose and nares

30. Feathers

31. Feet

32. Vent

33. Attitude

34. Housing Finches Together

35. Home Tweet Home: Preparing for Your Finches and Bringing Them Home

36. Your Finches’ New Home

37. Size matters: Cages, flight cages, aviaries, and habitats

38. Considering cage materials

39. Keeping cage safety in mind

40. Deciding where to put your bird’s cage

41. Accessorizing Your Finches’ Abode

42. Perches to stand on

43. Cups and bowls

44. Cage covers

45. Mineral blocks and cuttlebones

46. Toys

47. Baths

48. Lighting

49. Heating

50. Keeping Mess Away

51. Cage bloomers and seed guards

52. Cleaning supplies

53. HEPA filters

54. Setting up the Cage

55. Finch-Proofing Your Home

56. Traveling Safely from Store to Home

57. Caring for Your Finches

58. Water: Extremely Essential

59. Knowing What Your Finch Should (and Shouldn’t) Eat

60. Seeds and pellets

61. Veggies and fruit

62. Snacks

63. Live insects

64. Table foods

65. Cooked foods

66. Fun Finch Food Recipes

67. Finch flapjacks

68. Finch fiber fusion

69. Finch fries

70. What not to feed your finch

71. Nutritional supplements: When food is not enough

72. Helping Your Finches Get the Exercise They Need

73. Getting a Good Night’s Sleep: Putting Your Finch to Bed

74. Grooming Your Finch

75. Toenail clipping

76. Bathing your bird

77. Giving your molting birds some TLC

78. Can’t We All Just Get Along? Living with Other Pets

79. Cleaning Your Finches’ Housing

80. Come Here Often? Getting to Know Your Finches

81. Understanding Finch Behavior

82. What did you say?: Normal finch vocalization

83. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours: Preening and allopreening

84. Keeping Your Finches Healthy

85. Breeding Your Finches

86. Making sure you have a male and a female

87. Starting with healthy birds

88. Knowing when to breed

89. Getting the right equipment

90. Figuring out where to put the nest

91. Knowing what the parents need to eat

92. Prompting your finches to breed

93. Understanding the incubation period

94. Feeding and weaning chicks

95. Knowing What to Do When Something Goes Wrong

96. Egg binding

97. Infertile eggs

98. Inexperienced parent birds

99. Tossing the chicks

100. Failure to thrive

101. Finding foster parents for your babies

102. Handfeeding baby finches

103. Finding good homes for your baby finches

104. Discouraging Breeding

105. Ten Great Finch Websites

106. Ten Fun DIY Toys for Finches

Index