I own two cats. Both I got from a rescue. One was completely feral until recently tamed down. His name is Gandhi. The other is a cat who was raised in doors and then dumped on the street when he was no longer wanted. His name is Sebastian. Both felines get along well with eachother and seem to even out the other's personality. Intense, intellegent and cunning, Gandhi still has the wild in him. Sebastain...well, he is relaxed, doofy and a bit slow brained. He's also fluffy, and we like fluff.
Our dog is a beagle. And irritating.
The birds are another story though, and play an important part in this blog. They seem to have an ongoing battle of acrobatic athleticism between themselves and the felines. As of right now, I have lost 3 feathered friends to my cats. 1 indirectly, and 2 in an all out massacre.
I keep finches. I love them. They're tiny. They're sweet. They don't slip into madness if not handled every day. When they bite, it doesn't hurt. They don't eat a lot. They don't require much attention. And they're very, very cute. My first finches were society finches. They are said to be the best type to start off on because of their hardiness.
All my societies are dead.
So uh...oops?
I lost them over Christmas, when we went to visit family. I took the bird cage and locked it in the baby's room, thinking the cats couldn't reach them.
I was wrong.
Luckily, my zebras remained alive. The societies kind of didn't make it though...they are the only "tame" finch in existance, and I guess they didn't have the wild it took to fend for themselves. I was rather upset about this...after all, they were my first birds. I now have a new cage, and a new set up that seems to be out of the cat's physical range. The birds get loose on occasion when I feed though...and thats always a fun race between me, the cats, the dog and the baby to catch the finch. Its a lot of fun...I guess?
I now have 3 zebra finches, and 1 cutthroat finch. My two zebra males carry the pied gene and are also slightly pied marked. They're names are Bullseye and Decoy. They happen to be in a cage of their very own because they tend to pick on the others.
My third zebra is a little chestnut flanked white zebra female. She's such a doll baby. When I found her, her previous owner had clipped her wings and kept her in an over crowded, dirty cage. She was filthy and her wings were stripped due to the abuse they were taking when she tried to fly.
Don't ever clip finch wings. They won't survive long without them. They don't climb the cage bars like parrots, they fly from bar to perch to bar. Finches need their wings to reach food and water and without them they can starve in a cage with plenty of food and water if they can't reach it.
So anyways, I found little Mihah, my CFW (chestnut flanked white) zebra hen, and brought her home. She'll eventually be bred with one of my male zebras, but for now she needs some time to clean up a bit and grow back her wings. She's taking baths regularly now and is a pure snow white.
My fourth finch is a cutthroat male named JD Barbados. He's my prized possession. I've seen cutthroat finches at stores for years and I've always wanted one. But you know what? I'm not going to pay $80 for a single finch. I'm sorry. Maybe a little down the line when I'm ready to expand, but not now. I discovered that our local pet store lowered the price on their cutthroats to more than half their original price (which is the same price they'd go for from a normal breeder) and I snagged one up in the blink of an eye.
Now these finches are said to be aggressive towards others, and shouldn't be housed with any species outside their own because they can really bring on a beating. So when I brought him home, I tossed him in with Decoy and Bullseye...because I don't really tend to believe in what I'm told. They got along alright until the second day, when Bullseye and Decoy started beating the crap out of him. I immediately separated JD and put him in a cage with Mihah. Bingo. She pampers the crap out of that guy.
So leave it to me to pick out the most pathetic cutthroat out there! Oh well...he's keeping Mihah company, and she's happy to baby him.
This weekend is the local bird fair and I plan on getting JD a cutthroat female to bond with. Of course, I don't know where this will put Mihah. I'm afraid that once JD has a girl of his own species around, he may turn on Mihah and she's just too gentle to do anything. I may just get an extra zebra female for her to be paired with until she's ready for some kids...it might be a while for that though, she's still pretty young to have any.
SO ANYWAYS....this is a blog documenting the trial and errors of raising cats and finches under the same roof. Keep your hands and arms inside the ride at all times, it can get a bit bumpy...
Mihah and JD Barbados...he's so brave.
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