Finch Aviary - Care - Time Commitment

Time Commitment

For those of you who are wondering if you have enough time in your day to add a finch aviary to your lives, this is the section for you. The nice thing about finches as pets is they don't need constant love and attention the way a socialized bird like a parrot or cockatiel might. Because they don't bond to their humans, they don't miss you when you are away and you can go to work all day and not feel guilty coming home to them.

This doesn't mean you can just top off their seed every day and be done with them, as you may have already read in the previous sections. They need a clean environment. They need a balanced diet. At times they need medical care and they need an observant human to recognize those times.

Assuming it is not a period of stress (caring for an ill bird, attempting to resolve personality conflicts, breeding birds, or quarantining/introducing a new bird), the following is a typical day for me:

MORNING
Remove already prepared plate of eggfood, veggie, and treat from the refrigerator and place within the aviary.	1 minute.
THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Relax and watch the birds, for enjoyment and to monitor behavior.	Varies, but this is not considered work. If you consider it work, keeping finches is probably not a hobby you will enjoy.
EVENING
Remove the topmost layer of Kraft paper from the aviary floor - quickly examine droppings and throw away. Dispose of paper plate used for that day's fresh food.Remove dirty water bottles and bird baths. Replace with clean ones. Rinse by hand then wash dirty utensils in the dishwasher. Wipe down seed hopper and replenish seed, oyster shell, and Lafeber diet if low.	10 minutes.
Prepare tomorrow's fresh food on a plate - sliced veggie, eggfood, and treat. Cover with cling wrap or storage bag and store in the refrigerator.	10 minutes
DAILY TOTAL	Less than 30 minutes
WEEKLY AVIARY CLEANING (See Cleaning the Aviary for a complete list of tasks performed.)	Between 1 & 2 hours

So, as you can see, the time commitment for the "work" portion of finch keeping, really is not too demanding. But you must remember, that you do need to make time for observing your birds. Also, I have tweaked my maintenance schedule over time to make things run more efficiently. When you first begin, tasks may take you longer than they will when you get them ironed down. For example, I found that simply switching to a paper plate from a washable plate for providing fresh food cut down on the time spent scrubbing dried food particles of the plastic plate and making sure it got washed in the dishwasher.

There is also the baking of the egg bread, which is not accounted for above because it happens less frequently. One batch will usually last me somewhere between one and two months. When a new batch needs to be made, it takes about 15 minutes to prepare the batter and a half an hour to bake (see the egg bread recipe for details). If you don't have the time for baking, a hard-boiled eggfood can be used instead, or even a commercially prepared eggfood will do.

In addition, when you have to separate a bird (due to illness, compatibility problems, quarantine, breeding issues, etc), the time spent maintaining the birds will increase. There will be another living quarters that needs cleaning. You will need to prepare, clean, and fill another set of food, water, and treat cups. You may need to spend time dosing and administering medicine. These periods are the most difficult times. Hopefully they are the exception and not the rule.

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