Will gouldians nest before they are fully mature/not finished the final moult ? I bought some young birds a while back and they have almost fully coloured up, but I was in the aviary doing some house work yesterday and a couple seemed to be building a nest in a cane nest basket. One was very vocal and the other was just following him around so I am guessing the vocal one is the cock bird ? As I said bit hard to tell yet as they are not full coloured.
Trouble is I have a pair of cockateils in there and they keep pulling the nests apart, they have destroyed 3 zeb nests so far, eggs and all, just started it in the last few weeks, so I have to get them out. I will have to put them in a small cage until I build them their own aviary. Should just let em go with the wild ones and tell the missus they got out when I was cleaning the cage, lol.
Gouldians
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dano_68
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- Posts: 262
- Joined: 20 Jul 2010, 22:29
- Location: Brisbane, QLD
Hi CQDude
Gouldians are capable of reproducing from 6-8 months however it is not advisable. You should allow your birds to be a minimum of 12 moths old before you let them breed. There are a few reasons for this which include young, first year hens usually only lay clear eggs (non-fertilised) but more importantly they are very susceptible to egg-binding.
Whilst birds are moulting their autoimmune system is at an all time low and they will easily fall ill if they are under stress. Nest building and reproducing is the other all time stress period on a finch’s body. So a pair of finches still in the moult, breeding is a recipe for disaster! If you let them continue I would put money on that you lose the hen. I don’t mean to sound doom and gloom, but that is just the hard reality.
And BTW NEVER release a captive bird into the wild!!! Chances are they will be dead within 1 day but it is very irresponsible and stressful to the released bird. I would separate the Gouldians into a smaller cage until they colour up and sell the cockatiels lol.
Gouldians are capable of reproducing from 6-8 months however it is not advisable. You should allow your birds to be a minimum of 12 moths old before you let them breed. There are a few reasons for this which include young, first year hens usually only lay clear eggs (non-fertilised) but more importantly they are very susceptible to egg-binding.
Whilst birds are moulting their autoimmune system is at an all time low and they will easily fall ill if they are under stress. Nest building and reproducing is the other all time stress period on a finch’s body. So a pair of finches still in the moult, breeding is a recipe for disaster! If you let them continue I would put money on that you lose the hen. I don’t mean to sound doom and gloom, but that is just the hard reality.
And BTW NEVER release a captive bird into the wild!!! Chances are they will be dead within 1 day but it is very irresponsible and stressful to the released bird. I would separate the Gouldians into a smaller cage until they colour up and sell the cockatiels lol.
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CQDude
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- Posts: 63
- Joined: 20 Jun 2010, 07:42
- Location: Springsure QLD
- Location: "Baamba Plains" Springsure, Central Highlands & Coalfields QLD
Of course the other down side of releasing them into the wild is that this would probably be my last post on here and you would probably be hearing about me on the 7 o'clock news, "MAN DIES IN AXE MURDER OVER RELEASING QUARRIANS", lol.