Is there anything I can do to encourage my goulds to breed

[TheFinchMan101]

This year as I know has been pretty poor. Out of 3 pairs of gouldians this season I have only had 1 successful clutch of eggs and most clutches have been at the begining of breeding season. Is there anything I can do now to encourage them to breed or do I just leave them and let mother nature take it's course and wait till next season??

[jusdeb]

Let nature take its course . I assume your feeding greens etc so what else can you do ?
Honestly I have had a crap breeding season too , which did make me feel bad and made me second guess my husbandry practices but I snapped out of it and am happy to have healthy , active and well feathered birds .
Hopefully the weather will be less extreme next season and it will be a bumper year for all of us .

Getting too cold anyway , the little birds need to use their energy to keep warm for now. Next year will be better .

[Buzzard-1]

Personally I myself wouldn't be encouraging them to breed in winter. I'd prepare for next season green seed heads etc.

[Budgey]

I find that if i keep the sexes seperate in the non breeding season they are really keen to go down once the season starts, so maybe you could try that next season. That's if you have enough room!

[mackstaa]

Well Goulds do breed through the winter..its there thing.
Swap the nests around, make sure you are not over crowding and your cages arent too small.
Swap pairs if your not having any luck and u have multiple aviaries.
If maybe the breeders are last years young that you have bred or purchased, be happy they are thinking of breeding at all! Not all of them will breed on the first year and can be very picky for mates as well.

[mackstaa]

Oh as Buz mentioned, I can backup, green seed heads have boosted my breeding 100%. The summer grasses are starting to slow down now, or as in my case, when I am away for work I come back and somebody has forgotten to water the Guinea grass!!

[Glenbary]

Difficult to pinpoint why your Gouldians are not performing. Could be:
1. weather/environment
2. dominance/peck order interactions if the 3 pairs are in a colony
3. incompatability or not fully primed and ready to go
4. luck - you can never get a 100% success rate
Some things that I do are:
-seperate male from females at least 4 months before breeding
-manage the diet carefully in the leadup (austerity, then full on for about 1 month before pairing)
-do not overcrowd a new breeding colony, and do not allow a war zone to develop in the breeding colony
- keep some spare birds to replace any potential breeders that are not performing

[djb78]

When their on breeding condition seeding grasses, soaked seed and fruit & vegies are all good to help them with breeding but one thing I've been told to do is give them leb cucumber its supposed to help with conditioning and fertility.

[TheFinchMan101]

I now have one reason why my gouldians aren't breeding. Just went to look in one of their nests and food a mouse nesting in there.

[flap]

That would do it! we have had problems with a mouse getting some of our gouldians eggs. Third time lucky, we know have 3 chicks in one nest and two in the others. Hopefully now that you have the culprit you can work on mouseproofing your aviary. good luck!