Gouldian young

[bunyip1]

We were reading a book on gouldians today and it says to remove the young a couple of weeks after fledging, put them in holding cages and after the end of the breeding season put them in aviaries to moult and colour up. We are limited for space, our other aviary is pretty full and the only other option we have are breeding cages.What happens if the young are not removed from the aviary? Thanks.

[Diane]

I wouldnt be moving gouldian young out of the aviary after just a couple of weeks, they would be barely weaned by then. I like to be sure I see everyone eating and drinking on their own for a week or so before I would think about moving them.
Once the young start colouring up or in the case of males when you hear them singing then I try to separate them, and I have kept them in breeding cages for a time.
Its possible the book was referring to the young being pushed into breeding too early or possibly interfering with any further nests being occupied by other adult birds in the aviary.
The young can be quite nosey.
Nothing will happen to them if they are left in the aviary for longer, just keep an eye out for any bullying by other birds, or too much nest inspection by the young especially if the parents are still breeding.

[VR1Ton]

The main reasons for removing young, as Di mentioned, is interferance of nesting & young being attacked, though not a big issue with Gouldians, the other issue is competion for food, this will impact on further clutches than any other issue. Competing with their parents for food while another clutch is being reared will result in loss of young or even entire clutches.

[bunyip1]

Thnx for responses, much appreciated. Have seen some bullying due to young going too close to nesting boxes with eggs in them etc.

Cheers for now,
Bunyip1

[flippenheck]

I was asking a friend the other day this same question and he always leaves the young with the parents for whole season. The guy breeds a lot of Gouldians, so I wasn't going to question him. I am going to give it a go this year and see what happens

[POLAR GOULDIANS]

Hi Flip,
That is one thing I find with gouldians, that there are plenty of different ways to go about breeding them. As long as you get the results you desire I don't think there is a right or wrong way to breed these birds. In this case i usually take mine out after about three weeks, but if the aviary is big enough there would be no need to remove the young.

[Roy]

Yep 3 weeks and I get my fledglings out of the breeding aviary and either into breeding type boxes or another separate flight, I just find that they cause too much disturbance in the breeding aviary and tend to put the breeding pairs off a bit. Also having them in a small cage for a while when they are young tends to settle them down a bit and makes them less flighty as they become adults which I think is a good thing but hey I have only been breeding goulds for a couple of years now and this is just what works for me