Breeding Gouldians, cages vs avairy

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D0NKEY
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Ive had no success in cabinets but interested in selective breeding of some pairs. My cabinets were 75x45x45 ... have you used the standard canary doubles or did u make them to a specific size?
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finchbreeder
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Any way you could just put a selected pair/s into a different avairy/s to the others?
LML
LML
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D0NKEY
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Thats the only way around it at the moment finchbreeder, which is what im planning to do next season. Ill have to put down the pairs i want to go down together first in each aviary section. And once paired put others in.
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Martib
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Tiaris wrote: 12 Jun 2017, 10:21 I breed my Gouldians mostly as single pairs "carefully selected to breed quality exhibition birds like an experienced canary breeder would do", but I do it in large outdoor aviaries. I've tried colonies many times including this year with limited success compared to single pairs. My main priority in breeding Gouldians is to produce large active birds with strong colour and impressive body type (smooth flowing curves from bill-tip to tail from every angle). I cull heavily to exclude small weedy birds, puny heads, lack of draw, straight posture, poor hen chest colour & lack of blue collar on hens. I really like big, imposing, typy, colourful and active Gouldians which command your attention. I aim for constant improvement in quality every breeding season.
I mostly breed black-headed normals but in the last 5-6 years I have also been striving to develop a quality stud of yellow-headed normals (which still have a way to go to reach the standard of my black-headeds). My black-headeds have always included the yellow-headed gene as roughly half my black-headeds are yellow-billed. With BH to BH pairs I usually intentionally pair a yellow-billed BH to a red-billed BH (my red-billed BHs are all BH split to YH as they all have a yellow-billed parent). I do this as my red-billed BHs pass on the best colour intensity traits and my yellow-billed BHs pass on the best body type traits so I aim for a combination of both in their progeny. In developing and improving my yellow-headeds, I have use many mixed head colour pairs, but always with known genotype birds (for head colour) and only using matings to produce all known genotype progeny. Any matings which could produce same head colour young with different genotypes in the one clutch are avoided. This way I know the genotype of all my Gouldians without the need for test mating and I can confidently pair birds up with the goal of producing specific genotypes in their young.
Could you send me a pm please. I can't seem to send you one.
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E Orix
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Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
Location: Howlong NSW

Having been an avid aviary devotee for many years I decided that I would breed some Gouldians in cages, basically to control them.
Some 8 months on; the Gouldians have bred and increased but in all honesty I have disliked the whole process.
Building and fitting it out was in hind sight a total waste of time and money.
Once the breeding season is under way the cages will be pulled apart and I will most likely build small indoor floor to ceiling flights to hold one or two pairs.
Maybe it is just me but the Gouldians flying around in my outside aviaries look in better condition even though it is very cold.
STUART WHITING
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shnapper20 wrote: 13 Aug 2017, 21:17 Stuart i have double breeding cages in my garage when I first started with my gouldians I bred them in there. I found I had better control over who bred with who. and my breeding results appeared better. I only let them have one round and than released them to my aviaries hoping they would stay bonded for the rest of the breeding season. I did find the cages were a lot more work compared to aviaries in regard to cleaning water food etc. I now use them mainly for quarantining new birds, however I may use them for breeding down the track as it certainly takes the guess work out of who bred with who.
Hi snapper,

Yea I know what yer saying about the cages being time consuming as regards to feeding, watering and cleaning etc but as you rightly say that at least you can select the pairs that you intend to breed with, this way to me is how one would form a quality stud of birds rather than mix n match in a large community avairy so to speak,

However I'm very limited for space and although I've got room for a couple of smallish flights I find it easier to use the cages within me birdroom,

I suppose some are very lucky out in Aussie as many of you have untold amount of space and can use a block of small separate flights / avaires and have pairs of gouldians in each flight :thumbup:

Speak soon
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Brisbane_Finches_333
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Hi,

Almost all people I know (including me) breed finches in large outdoor aviaries, and very few breed them in cages, as aviaries give them more room to fly and a better environment, especially when planted.
Aidan [] Junior Moderator [] Breeder of Native and Foreign Finches
Queensland Finch Society Member
2019 ABK Magazine Young Birdkeeper Winner
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noah.till
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If birds are kept in cages in a stuffy, closed in environment, the susceptibility of birds getting diseases from others, especially air sac mite, is increased higher when an infected bird is kept in close proximity
Downs Bird Breeders Association and Queensland Finch Society Member
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Javan Munia, Black Rumped Double bar and Aberdeen Breeding Project
TimR
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I remember at a bird club meeting a talk on breeding gouldians it was said not to go smaller than a meter by a meter by a meter. Also only buy the birds in February. Put them in adjoining cages separate. So that they can see each other. Hold them for one month. Then put them together. I tried this the next February that came around. It worked out great.
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Brisbane_Finches_333
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Personally I really don't know anyone in australia (except for 10 year old me) who breeds gouldians and other finches in cabinets, aviaries are definitely the large majority.
Aidan [] Junior Moderator [] Breeder of Native and Foreign Finches
Queensland Finch Society Member
2019 ABK Magazine Young Birdkeeper Winner
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