One ambition held by many finch owners is to successfully engage in breeding finches, if only to build their own community of finches for themselves.
Others want to breed their finches to make a profit by selling the birds to people or pet shops.
Whatever your reason for breeding finches it is clear that you must be prepared to take on the responsibility for caring for and housing your young birds.
First, and perhaps most importantly, your finch's habitat must be impeccable.
Clean is simply not good enough if you intend to raise happy, healthy young birds.
By focusing on keeping your finch habitat clean you assure that the hatchlings have the best chance of survival.
Then you have to have a mating pair.
Many types of finches are quite particular with whom they mate.
If your pair is not compatible then there will be no baby birds.
In addition, you have to be sure you are meeting the nesting requirements for your specific finches.
Each variety has quite different needs when it comes to food and nesting sites.
Will your birds mate in a flight cage or do they require a densely planted aviary in order to mate? Some varieties of finches are content to feed their young a diet of seeds.
Others must have access to insect protein in order to provide food for their young.
Provide the wrong diet and your birds are likely not to mate.
A little research into the dietary needs of mating finches is worth the effort if you want your birds to mate successfully.
In some varieties of finches the male and female are distinctively marked but in others there is no way to visually distinguish male from female.
Some breeders will mark the males and females of like looking birds with colored bands on the legs.
When buying finches for breeding purposes you may want to start with birds that are easily distinguished by gender.
I mentioned earlier that many varieties of finches are quite particular with whom they mate.
One way to assure successful mating is to create an environment in which your birds are more likely to form mating pairs.
You can do this by bringing groups of three males and three females together and allow the birds to pair off.
Two of the birds will form a pair quickly and the others will follow.
Finally, don't allow birds under nine to ten months old to mate.
As soon as gender markings form it is wise to separate males and females into isolated habitats.
This is especially important for your female birds as mating before reaching full sexual maturity will weaken bones and cause both an early death of the mother and increase the likelihood of unhealthy hatchlings.