Does anybody here breed birds?

[Shelley]

I am pretty bird illiterate. Before I go into what's happening, does anybody here have any experience with this?

Shelley

 

[runamuk]

I have a fair amount of bird knowledge. What are the concerns?

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

you can also email (pm) Lori, Luvmycritters on the forum, she is very knowledgeable about birds and has quit a collection...by the way Lori--if your reading this I have some finches waiting for you.. Corinne

 

[Shelley]

Well, like I said I'm pretty bird illiterate.

Anyway, we have some Gouldian Finches. As it's breeding season in Australia, they started laying eggs all over their cage. In the feeders, on the bottom of their flight. They were shredding their newspapers and putting the shreds in the water containers. I was throwing the eggs away. We felt bad for the birds so we gave them a nest. Within a day or two there were seven eggs. However, nobody was paying any attention to them. I couldn't just separate out the pair because I had no idea who they were. A lady that had bought a flight cage from me last weekend stopped by on Tuesday and brought me three male society finches. She said they would foster the eggs. Well, it's been two days and they still seem to have no interest.

In the meantime, the Gouldians laid two more eggs yesterday. One of the males decided he would sit on them. Today he started getting really ugly. He started picking on one hen the most, he kept chasing her and at one point had her hanging by a wing. I was afraid he would kill her. All the birds were so upset I finally just removed the nest and stuck it in the society's cage.

In the meantime, peace has been restored in their flight. If the societies don't start fostering pretty soon maybe I'll just have the lady pick them back up and toss the eggs.

I didn't set out to breed finches, but....

Shelley

 

[Shari]

How many Gouldian Finches do you have in one cage? How big is their cage?

I ask this because I did raise them a number of years ago along with many other breeds of finches. Gouldians really liked their space and one pair can get really anti social to others.

They can be extremely picky about their mates... this is were a lot of trouble happens.

http://www.finchworld.com/gouldpage.html

http://www.birds2grow.com/cs-gouldian.html

http://www.birdhealth.com.au/bird/finches/finches.html

 

[Shelley]

I have 7 goulds...4 hens, 3 boys. The cage is 64" wide by 21" deep by 35" high.

Thanks for the links! I know Goulds are not easy to breed and even if the eggs hatch they are likely to throw the babies.

Like I said, I had no intention of ever even trying...until they laid all these eggs...

But if it doesn't work out, that's ok too. This afternoon I was really upset watching all the disruption in the flight.

Shelley

 

[runamuk]

So far you have gotten some good advice. I was going to also say goulds are very territorial not really a society type bird.......from the sounds of it you may have a few too many in the cage. I have seen a few species of finches kill each other during breeding season they can be amazingly violent and brutal for such little birds.........looks like shari has some great links.........good luck

 

[nootka]

I, too, raised Gouldians before I had minis (and for a while along with. My last blue male died just a few weeks ago at 11 years of age).

My "flight" cage was 6'X6' and I provided the birds with lots of greenery around their nest boxes.

I did have pairs that laid eggs and for the most part, I let them raise their babies or not!

I did use Societies a few times, but only in male/female pairs. I did not know that males alone would raise eggs...or maybe this is the problem. Usually Societies will really do a great job raising Goulds. I even raised a few Goulds by hand, and it was no fun/hard work. Not always successful, but sometimes.

Watch your cage and set the pairs up in breeding cages by themselves. Wish you were closer, I have several breeding cages and one big flight cage I need to sell.

Good luck w/the birds, they are a lot of fun. I will have more some day!

Liz M.

 

[Shelley]

Thanks for the advice! Greatly appreciated!

One of the societies moved into the nest last night! He is sitting on the eggs right now. I didn't know males would do it on their own, either - the lady who brought them has bred birds for quite some time and she said they would and that if I had all boys I wouldn't have to worry about ending up with a bunch of them. I don't know that anything will happen...I didn't hold the eggs up to see if they are even fertile.

At any rate, peace has been restored among the gouldians. Like I said, I didn't aspire to be a breeder, we just wanted some pretty little birds. We've had goulds for 18 months now.

Here are the little cuties (taken a month or so ago):

It was Spencer, the red headed guy up at the top that was causing all the commotion yesterday. The little gal off to the left is a blue hen. She is finally coloring up, her chest is white now and her back is getting bluer every day.

Thanks again and I'll let you know what happens.

Shelley

 

[Shari]

They are nice looking birds Shelley.

I have Bourkes now..and I just love them. Do not plan to set them up for breeding until late this coming spring.

Liz.. Please PM me about your flight cage...

Sort'a looking for one.

 

[hairicane]

Your finches are beautiful! When I was a kid we had finches for years, all kinds of them. We got our 1st finch, a cordon blue, in a hurricane! We had a barn, pumphouse building the size of some peoples homes and during the storm a door blew open. After the storm had passed I found the little finch in there, she lived for quite a few years. And we bought her lots of friends.

 

[The Dynamic Duo]

well our freinds parekeets just lay eggs, sometimes with babies and sometimes not like chickens

 

[Shelley]

OH MY GOSH WE HAVE BABIES!!!

The societies have still been sitting in the nest so this morning we thought we would throw the eggs out as they should have hatched by now.

Well, the societies did not want to leave the nest, but after we got them out we discovered three babies and two eggs! (started with nine eggs). At least two of them are definitely alive and one for sure had his eyes open! They are still pink and helpless.

We can hardly believe it!!!

I know we have a long way to go for the babies to survive. I guess we can only trust the societies, but so far they've done a pretty good job. )

I'm still in shock.

Shelley