Owners can care for breeding finches by providing them with a safe, spacious and warm environment to breed. Ensure healthy offspring by choosing a healthy and content pair of finches of appropriate mating age. Provide them with a generously sized nesting box, containing the appropriate nesting material for finch breeding. Try not to disturb the nest too often because the eggs might be knocked or broken by the parents.
Choose a healthy and strong male and female when finch breeding. Ensure they are both at least nine months old and no more than four years old in order to breed strong offspring. Choose finches that are active and content. Keep only the nesting pair in the cage, as other birds can hinder the mating and nesting process.
Place the cage in a quiet area free of excess traffic and noise, or risk disturbing the young finches and scaring the female away from the nest. Always make a few gentle noises as you approach the cage to let the birds now you are there. Scaring the breeding finches can cause a commotion and the eggs could become damaged. Buy nesting food for finch breeding at the pet store, because it contains appropriate food for the finches to feed their young.
Keep the mating pair apart before finch breeding, so that when they are put together they mate quickly. Prepare the nesting box; it should be large enough to accommodate the adult birds and their young. The contents of the nesting box should be easily accessible with an easy to open wooden lid. Fresh grass, coconut fiber or tissue paper are suitable materials to place into the bottom of the box for nesting.
Place the nesting box into the cage, the higher the better, or the birds may not wish to use it. Try moving the box to a different location in the cage if they refuse it. The finches may also dislike the nesting box itself, if so, try a wicker basket style nest for finch breeding, available from pet stores.
Know that your finches are ready to mate when the male starts performing a mating dance and song. The process is over in just a few moments. If eggs have not hatched in 20 days, they may not have been fertilized. Remove the eggs so that the birds can nest again. Try not to check the eggs too often or risk the birds accidentally destroying them. Check if the eggs are fertile by holding a light up to each egg; a growing chick should be clearly visible.
