Zebra finches must be amongst the easiest birds to keep and to breed. They are hardy and cope well with a mixed community. At times, they can be a little demanding when it comes to nest boxes, chasing away other finches from boxes which they aren't yet using themselves. Generally, though, they get along with the rest of the aviary.

As they are now so commonly found it is easy to become blaise about them and to forget that they are still an extremely attractive bird. They are also very sociable. They will always come over and join us for tea, cake being a particular favourite of theirs.

They breed readily, needing only a standard finch box and plenty of nesting material (particularly coconut fibre and hay). At one time we were in danger of becoming overrun by their chicks but we have now settled down to more manageable numbers. I assume this ties in with advice from the Finch Handbook which explains that Zebra will breed as early as 12 weeks old but produce offspring which are less than hardy. Thus, they recommend removing nesting opportunities until chicks are better developed. This would not be feasible in our environment, however. There are now many colour varieties and we have found that all of our pairs will produce a mixture of different types of chick irrespective of the parents. This we don't mind as it adds variety to the flock.

They feed on a variety of seeds and we provide them with a finch mix. They are not great fruit-eaters though and I haven't seen them with a mealworm. They will feed from the pots but are more commonly to be found on the ground.