Sorry for not posting for the last month. Many tasks prevented me from updating FinchMe, but now I have the time to do so and I am planning to output an article at least once a week. In the meantime, I would like to thank everyone who keeps visiting the site to exchange their ideas on breeding finches. I’ve just noticed that many of you are still interested in discussing the best cages for protecting our birds from rats, ants, and lately, as Ms. Ladybird has revealed, snakes. With regard to this I would like to share to you what I am currently using myself.

I can’t remember the exact dimensions of the big cage, but I designed it to house 4 double 17×30’s one on top of one another. Currently I only have two of the planned four small cages, but am planning to acquire more birds in the next few months. I have placed it on a roofed part on the back of our house which is open-aired on two sides.

For those who are interested, I shelled out about 750 Pesos for the whole contraption. I got some scrap metal for the braces, some meters of the fine chicken wire, and had it put together by a welding man from a local auto repair shop. I have used this for over six months now and have protected my birds from dozens of cats and mice around our neigborhood. I think it can also protect the birds from snakes. My only problem now are the ants which feast on egg crumbs thrown by my zebras, who are very messy eaters.

The main advantages of this cage are the following:

1. it doesn’t require additional lighting fixtures
2. the cages are well ventilated
3. protection from cats and mice
4. it’s located outside so cleaning seed husks is much easier

How about you guys? I would like to know about your cage setup. Send me the pics at finchme.now(at)gmail.com and I will post them here, or you can host your pictures at http://www.freeimagehosting.com.