Bluuuuuueeeee! :))

[Tiaris]

SF YB male fledglings have a very grey look about them.

[USAFinch]

Deplorable luck this year w my blue project ( BHPB blue cock, BHPB normal hen). Three babies & ALL tossed or worse........disappeared! Best of luck to you; keep us posted!

[Finchy]

SF YB male fledglings have a very grey look about them.

Interesting. I've hatched a few yellows but haven't noticed that; usually mine look yellowish or a light greenish colour.

The mother of this clutch is Euro Yellow though (- the result of my philandering DF yellow male unexpectedly taking a new wife. So much for life-long pair bonds; he dumped his very attractive wife of 18 months and took up with a split blue girl! They've been together ever since.) The father of the clutch is green/split blue.

I guess we'll find out for sure about the grey baby soon enough...

[Craig52]

Finchy,if the colour of the back is a dull slatey grey the bird is a blue,don't give up Craig

[Finchy]

That's what I thought. What, then, do you make of the light coloured baby #1? The pretty silvery-grey is similar to the colour of the bird in Craig's avatar, but the emerging blue feathers look regular blue. It's too soon to be certain though; perhaps it's a SF Pastel cock? That bird is doing quite well, always the first at everything.

The slate grey bird I was expecting to have lost by now. S/he didn't look right from the start - dropped wing tips most of the time and just never 100%. But s/he is still going, so we'll see.

[finchbreeder]

I have everything crossed. My possible split blue pair have been sitting stedily, and are now out demanding grass with greater enthusiasm. But of course they stole the Double Bars nest in a cable reel, where I cannot see anything, accept the heads of the parents when they are sitting.
LML

[Finchy]

Well that didn't take long. First blue/seagreen dead, second on its way. The one with the 'neutral' coloured back died in the last couple of hours. Chest reasonably full; vent slightly moist and yellowish (but all Coccidia etc treatments fully up to date and recent); eyes, nose and mouth clear.

My other one, the pastel blue, is sitting on the floor. OK, it's a hot day and sometimes they sit do low in that cool area, but the other birds are up high today. It's just him. I was able to pick him up because his eyes were slightly crusty, like sleepy dust; it was very easily wiped away to reveal clear, dark, healthy eyes; no discharge or swelling. He's a bit thin in the chest - not good for a young bird.

This same bird then had a neurological flip out from the stress of me picking him up. He lost balance, couldn't perch properly, ran into things, rolled over and couldn't easily right himself. This exact same thing happened a couple of weeks ago after he was surprised by something. A few minutes later he was behaving normally again and remained normal - really very good - until just now. I've never seen that before in any bird - a stress-induced loss of balance.

Anyway, I'll be surprised if he's alive tomorrow. So depressing. I had hoped that if I bred blues myself I might actually have some live beyond a few weeks! Maybe actually breed from them. Looks like I'm going to have to continue to watch these beautiful birds die for quite a long time yet. Perhaps a few more generations of splits. Or perhaps just forever; it's been 7 years of trying, after all. Just so bleepin' depressing.

Their two normal olive-backed siblings are, of course, perfectly fine.

[Finchy]

Unable to resist, as always, I have brought the ailing pastel blue indoors. He's close to death, resting his head on the ground.

Holding his face up to my ear I hear silence initially, then a series of crackles like bronchitis, then silence, then another series of crackles. Looking closely I can see the tiniest amount of brown crusting in the nares. Though I may kill him faster by trying, I've given him Doxy, sugar-based vitamins, emergency gel from Rob Marshall and lypospheric vitamin c (truly amazingly effective stuff).

All pointless of course, because even if there's a miraculous turnaround at the gates of heaven he still won't survive in the aviary. If his immune system is so absolutely rubbish that he can't cope with everyday bugs that other birds are unaffected by, during truly excellent warm, dry weather, that will be the end of that sooner or later. I wouldn't want him to breed even if he could. And I don't want an indoor bird!

But he's so pretty. And he's my first.

[TomDeGraaff]

Could the "crackles" be airsac mite, Finchy ? I don't have much to do with Gouldians these days. Others might comment.

Also, I have had Gouldians go stupid on me when stressed through being caught up for the first time. They fluttered and lay on their backs but did recover ok. The only other birds I have had this happen with are red-whiskered bulbuls - all (of both species) were young birds never caught before.
Tom

[Finchy]

Thanks Tom. No, not ASM - regular treatment cycle with Moxy, and no other birds affected. All of my money is on it being one of the common bacterial/mycobacterial infections that knock out blues because they don't have normal immune function.