Adjusting Estrilid Breeding Cycles

[GregH]

Has anyone read Mike Fidler's article (http://savethegouldian.org/articles/mik ... ticle.html) on the Save the Gouldian site regarding food availabilty being the environmental cue which triggers breeding, molting and conditioning? In it Mike proposes that anyone can manipulate the lifecycle of any Estrilid finch by triggering a molt after breeding with an austerity diet and then condition birds and trigger breeding with high protein food suppliments. It's probably a bid more complicated than that but I'd like to see what other breeders think?

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[Mickp]

bit harder to do in an aviary with a mixed collection of finches.
around june each year I put all of my birds on an austerity diet. then in late august I start re-introducing live & green food.

[gomer]

mine are on the same diet all year.Dry and chitted seed.plus seeding grass heads.They stop breeding around November for thier moult.Mine are in mixed avairys so thats why they get the same diet all year as somthing is going most months of the year.As gouldians seem to like the shorter days of the year for breeding.

[GregH]

Well I've done my best with a mixed collection to use the Fidler method (adjusting for location - see illustration) but it may have limitations if you don't have a lot of aviaries to separate the sexes or you have monomorphic species. I'm in the middle of the austerity period to "induce" molting even though the Gouldians and Java's naturally start molting now. A pair of Hecks though are ignoring the instruction and have gone to nest with 5 eggs (one for each day of Austerity). I guess the Austerity period will be over by the time they hatch but I will then have to give more soft-food and grass seed than Fidler recommends. Life is about compromise and Mike's operation may big enough to enforce his regeime with only Gouldians to look after but I'll have to compromise or endure more work.

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[gomer]

That could be a problem.when birds breed on the maintenance part.