First ever clutch ( Gouldian )

[PinsonBleu]

Update :

One egg didn't hatch ; the embryo was dead in brown juice.

Two chicks hatched and are well fed by the parents, who are dedicated to the point they hush the other out to take their turn in the box.

By now the babies make cute noises and grow very fast.

The parents didn't seem to care I went fishing the dead egg with a tiny spoon. Really chill birds.

Though they ignore the brocoli, eat a bit of fortified egg/fuit food mix and focus on the seeds.

I tried making some of their seeds sprout, maby they will like it more than the brocoli.

Salut.

[BrettB]

Like Finchbreeder, my Gouldians have little interest in green food or egg mixes.
When feeding chicks they really go for green seed, sprouted seed (just as the shoot is visible) and soaked seed (not yet spouted).
Sprouted seed is more nutritious than soaked seed but takes a bit longer to make. I add a bit of vitamen powder to the mix.
Both can be frozen and fed out as required
Millet is their favourite

Cheers
Brett

[PinsonBleu]

Update : The parents keep feeding the two chicks, which are growing nicely. They look cute now that they feathered-up, and I expect them to fledge next week.

I managed to tweak color settings on a picture so the babies are visible. Excuse the poor quality.



Things are looking good for them.

[finchbreeder]

Congratulations to you and the proud parents.

[Stu]

If I understood color inheritence correctly, the male chicks would be orange head, the females black head + orange beak, and chest color depends on possible hidden recessive trait of the purple-chest hen ( if she's double factor purple chest, all chicks would be purple split to white ).

Correct, and resulting cocks will be split blackhead (Yellow/black).

[PinsonBleu]

A round of applause for the parents here :












Now that the babies are out, is it okay to move the family for like 20 minutes to wash the cage / nest, and trim the parent's nails?

The advice and the discussions were appreciated, thanks you.

[finchbreeder]

I find that having differing size wooden perches keeps my birds toenails in trim condition.

[PinsonBleu]

Update : One chick, the bigger one, suddenly died.

The smaller other one ( on the right in the last picture of previous post ) is motling : male, orange face ( split for black ), green back, purple chest ( split for white ). Only the chest color could have been a surprise ( I don't know if the hen is split, and didn't know if she had a very good liliac chest or a poor purple chest. Purple it is. )

His song improved alot and I saw him dance for his parents a couple times. Ridiculously cute.

The breeding pair had 4 new eggs when I checked.

As with last time, the cock got super motivated and started sitting around egg no2, sitting consistently since egg no3, and the hen is not sitting yet.

She was in a hurry to go back in when I was changing their water and food, so maby she's laying a fifth egg. ( Edit : Yup, 5 eggs now. )

Hoping for some more healthy chicks. I already got an extra cage but if they all survive I'll need a small aviary. That would be nice.

Edit2 : One bird ( probably the hen ) is stubbornly sitting in the box despite the other two being annoying flying around making noises after lights out tonight. Things are looking good if five eggs are being properly incubated.

[finchbreeder]

Many birds do do better in their 2nd season than their 1st. Think of the 1st as a trial run. It is a good idea to allow lots of room, so a small avairy is a very good idea. Mothers 2.5mtr cube avairy has tripled it's population this breeding season. Maybe you will have the same good fortune.

[PinsonBleu]

Pics of the baby with more colors :







The parents are keeping their clutch warm and are pretty relax.

I can change the water, open the door, reach inside the cage to grab the food, put everything back, and the one sitting stays in the nest most of the time. Again the female being more likely to go out the nest.

The award of stubborn sitter goes to the male, who stayed inside the nest while I vacuumed under the cage.