mixed supplements for Gouldians

For all your questions about diet and food for your finches
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E Orix
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Posts: 2740
Joined: 29 May 2009, 23:30
Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
Location: Howlong NSW

After reading what you feed your birds on is far more than I offer to my Gouldians.
You can feed too much of a good thing and birds will become too fat and in general cock birds
may end up infertile.While feeding green food is very good the actual amount of edible seed in the bunch my
be very small.
These days mine get a good quality seed mix, egg shells etc, and soak seed just chitting every day during
the breeding period.
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BrettB
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Posts: 470
Joined: 13 Jun 2012, 23:28
Location: Perth

I really doubt that nutrition is the problem.
If you are having nesting failures then I would look elsewhere for the answer

Cheers
Brett
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are ." Anais Nin
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finchbreeder
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Joined: 27 Jun 2009, 20:00
Location: Midwest of West. Aust. Coast
Location: Midwest of West.Aust.Coast

Is the problem that they do not lay or that they do not hatch or that they do not raise the young?? Each problem will be solved differently.
LML
LML
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dibakes
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Posts: 17
Joined: 30 Aug 2016, 09:11
Location: adelaide

I have 2 females, (had 3 till last week when one died) they both lay lots of eggs, hatch 2 or 3, then abandon them after a week or so. The males and females both take turns for the hatching period.Nest boxes are cleaned out after every hatching, they are treated regularly for air-sac mites, and given mites/lice treatments when necessary The are in a 6ft outdoor aviary with a pair of canaries, (they don't bother each other) but the female canary is also a bad mother, continually abandoning her babies. They have good quality finch food, so not sure what else I can try.
Not having any luck at all with this lot,
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Craig52
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Joined: 11 Nov 2011, 19:26
Location: victoria

After reading through all these posts not one has mentioned that gouldians do not cover their young at night or during the day after around ten days old. Maybe you are panicking that they are not sitting and interfering too much. Anyway,it is time to remove nest boxes now as they will be moulting out and replace them at around the end of February and remember what i said above about 10 day no cover of young.
It is canary breeding season NOW and what you have is a clash of breeding cycles between the canaries and gouldians so there will be clashes between the two species so imo they should be separated into different aviaries as they will be bothering each other but not while you are watching them, canaries are aggressive whilst they are breeding or beginning to breed.
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finchbreeder
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Location: Midwest of West. Aust. Coast
Location: Midwest of West.Aust.Coast

If you are feeding the canaries canola seed it could be that the cock is driving the hen to mate again too soon. Once the canary hen is down on eggs cut out the canola so he backs off and settles down to raising chicks. Or he may be one of those cocks who needs 2 wives because he is over enthusiastic. I have one like that. Not having more nests than hens is also a problem in an avairy with more than one pair.
LML
LML
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Rod_L
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Joined: 05 Mar 2018, 15:30
Location: Mandurah WA

In my experience, canaries and Gouldians are fine together, however, they both need to be treated for air-sac mites as soon as you get them, as both are regularly infected and both suffer badly from them when infected. Ivermectin is the best thing to use for this and is available from any Vet.

Canaries and Gouldians use completely different types of nest so there should be no arguments over nesting sites. Canaries have an open cup shaped nest, whereas Gouldians prefer a hollow log or nest box. If you have the nests at opposite ends of the aviary it can help reduce territorial aggression, assuming there is any. And have several nests for each pair of birds. Let them choose which one they want to use. Make sure all the nests are the same height and have them reasonably high up.

Hang some branches up near the nests to make the birds feel more secure. Grow plants in the aviary. You can grow plants in 30cm, pots and have them in the aviary. If the plants get badly chewed up or covered in bird poop, you can take them out of the aviary, wash them and give them a month to recover before putting them back in the aviary. Have a number of plants and alternate them if they are being damaged.

If your canaries are abandoning the nest, they could be getting disturbed at night by vermin or insects.

In my experience with canaries, once a female goes to nest and is sitting on eggs, you can't get them off the nest. They are a bit like female king quails in that respect. Broody little mothers :)
death to all cats & ants
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finchbreeder
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Location: Midwest of West. Aust. Coast
Location: Midwest of West.Aust.Coast

"Canaries and Gouldians use completely different types of nest so there should be no arguments over nesting sites. Canaries have an open cup shaped nest, whereas Gouldians prefer a hollow log or nest box."
I also keep my canaries and Gouldians together and Ivamec them at the slightest sign of Airsac mite. Re the above comment Rod. I was told that 40 yrs ago when I first put the 2 types in together. However over the years have found that many of the birds don't seem to have read the information. At least half of the canary hens I have kept over the years have prefered closed boxs. Just put lots on nest of varying types in and spread them round the avairy.
LML
LML
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