My Baby

[DebM]

Hello to all...well sinces my last topic of "Help Urgent" my little gould which we now call Heim cross betweem her and him seems to be doing well I have put Heim into the population of finches just today only put Heim in the little box we built into the avery but Heim made it's way out to the perches it flew and I didn't see it I tell you it was like missing your child walk for the first time which I haven't done that for mmmmmm .....lets see..........20 years but Heim will only feed when I feed it seems to be really happy doing what comes naturally...........preening........fluffing.............sleeping..........socializing but not feeding without me now what do I do????????????????? there seems to be no problem with Heim apart from not eating until I feed Heim I am assuming that with all things being equal this will happen in due course Heim is now about 23 days old approx do I bring Heim out of a night time about 5pm when they all decide to end the day and I might add Heim comes to me or do I leave Heim in there to fend for Heimself?????????????????????..as you can imagine I am so excited to have Heim as part of the family and I tell you that since I started to feed Heim on Monday putting Heim in the avery I never thought that Heim was ready to fly so soon and all I have Heim on is Arrowroot biscuits, Baby apple sauce and Hand rearing food all mixed together learnt this from my Mum many, many, many years ago when she was rearing Budgies..........Hey..........it worked for her and so far it has worked for Heim Unfortunately the Paswells mix I can't get till after Easter so unless I let Heim die.............I did what I could do and so far finger crossed...........touch wood............rub a rabbits foot all is going ok what can I do just hope all will be ok....so thats it for now will let you know more.............cheers for now..........Deb

[toothlessjaws]

why do you write.........like this

[Nrg800]

By golly, that's alot of elipsises.... I can't help you though, sorry...

[spanna]

when i raised my two painted boys i gradually introduced them into the aviary, bringing them in at night just to make sure they were warm. they soon learnt to eat what other painteds ate, and gorged themselves on maggots more often than not, YUM. i'm assuming gouldians will go more for greens though, so make sure you have some green seed as well as dry seed available to Heim all the time so it can nibble and slowly learn. at about 30 days old i started stretching out the feeds, say and extra 20 or 30 minutes between feeds so they're just that bit hungrier that they may want to feed themselves, as a normal finch parent would. check (by watching whenever you can) that they are in fact interested in the food, and also check its crop if possible to see if they have ingested any seeds (blow against the feathers and it should become visible). eventually you should be able to stretch feeds out even more and, for lack of a better word at all, "starve" (not really, just make a bit hungrier.... you know what i mean!!) into wanting to feed itself more and more, until eventually you feed them less frequently and less in quantity as well. i am currently hand rearing a young gouldian myself who has had hardly any exposure to other birds at all, and it is showing interest in dry seed, picking at it and attempting to remove the husk. all i have done with it is present seeds to it when it starts picking/chewing on whatever it sees, having it available all the time seems key. making sure it is eating is VERY important, if it's not feeding itself much you will need to keep up the feeds until it gets the hang of it. hope that helps, feel free to ask any more questions.

[Misso]

millet spray might be a good step up for the little guy. bit softer for him/her

[DebM]

Thankyou Spanna that was really helpful, I have been putting fresh greens in the aviary every morning as the Goulds really do love them.
Misso I have just got millet sprigs so hopefully this will help to.

Thanks again

[lyn2233]

Hi Deb, I have been raising 3 little zebras since they were a few days old. They are now 9 weeks old and one is just starting to eat itself as I can see seed in it' crop. The others are still not feeding themselves, it took 10 weeks for the last finch I hand raised. I thought it would never feed itself but they finally do, BUT it may take a lot LONGER than a finch fed by it's parents. I still have mine in a cage till I know they are feeding themselves properly. I put them in the smaller aviary for a couple of hours a day for them to socialise with the other birds.Be patient it may take your little finch longer also.

[DebM]

Hi Lyn, thanks for that, well it is still going great guns, I have been watching and it seems to be trying to eat seed, I now have him in a smaller cage as the other finches were pecking at him and pulling out his feathers, I have a single male yellow back who was on his own in the aviary so now I have put him in with the baby, and they seem to be pretty good together. I don't know what this little fellow is yet but all is going well.
I still haven't got the paswells mix from Brisbane so have been feeding him on the same mix of arrowroot biscuits and apple sauce and he is thriving so far. So all is good. Cheers for now.......... Deb