Fact or Fiction

[POLAR GOULDIANS]

I get somewhere between frustration and amusement with the statements people make on forums ( not just this one and not just to do with birds ) , where they make false statements either through inexperience or lack of knowledge.
The problem with this is that it can be presumed to be correct by newcomers to the finch world and therefore increase the circle of ill-informed people, which cannot be a good thing for bird keeping in general.

I have a saying which I repeat to my 18 year old son when he does something silly. " don't show your lack of intelligence all in the one place ' , maybe it would be good advice for some people on forums.

The other issue i have is when myths are passed on by people who have never tested to see if they are accurate.
My favourite of these involves nest inspections of Gouldians.
I am sure that with some other species of finches the mere mention of a nest inspection will lead to abandonment of the nest. I check all my Gouldian nests every day and cannot recall every having a nest abandoned. I find with a lot of the hens and even some of the cock birds you have to lift them out of the way to inspect the young. Some of them will sit on your hand until you place them back on the nest.

This is not an attack on anyone in particular, just my feelings on the matter in general so feel free to comment either way.

[jusdeb]

The thing is ...people ask a question OK other people give answers not just for the sake of it and not always the correct answers but all with good intentions either way .

So from then on its up the the person to sift through the info , do some googling , ask more questions and then use the new found information to resolve the problem themselves .

More the fool that takes every reply as gospel . I oftne go to bed abd think about what others have said and make many many decisions before deciding on the one that best suits me and my situation .

So my point is .... yes there are fools that dont know what they are talking about but most people are only trying to help with what they have learnt . I myself have given wrong answers and ahve learnt from that when I read other people replies its how we learn .

Your allowed to have an opinion on the matter , mine is lifes too short to bothered by others ...Ill give advice as best I can and at the end Ill remind the asker of the question that I am no expert and Im only going on my experiences .

[desertbirds]

There are a lot of false statements made but quite often the satements are made with the best intentions.I have nest inspected species such as Blue caps, pictorellas, Redbrows and Diamonds. On the odd occasion i may have had a nest deserted but i have no way of knowing if that was due to my interference. I have on quite a few occasions saved a nest where i have felt one young one was dead and removed it. Ive also taken clear eggs out with some birds to prevent them sitting for another week or so without the need to do so.It also depends on individual birds rather than the whole species.I inspect nests but i dont recommend for everyone to do the same.I think some pairs actually get accustomed to it and it really doesnt bother them too much.
Its also interesting reading that some species dont take insects on the wing. Having cracked open a few termite nests with flying termites in there i noticed some of these species having no trouble catching the fliers on the wing.

[E Orix]

I know it can be frustrating but that is life.
Our hobby in particular has so many variables and in many cases different views can all be correct.
What may be obvious to some, may not be obvious to others
One of the reasons we have Forum names is for people who are scared of asking a dumb question(in their mind) to be able to ask
without telling people their name.
I accept all the comments good or bad BUT I do not accept dogmatic people putting out a dogmatic opinions.
Your comment on nest inspection is a good example.(not dogmatic)
You are an experience Gouldian breeder who knows how to handle your birds they are used to you and no problems are encounted.
An inexperienced person gets Gouldians and reads that you can inspect their nest boxes.They do not realise that you don't pull a box down when the parents are actually feeding,you don't inspect and fiddle with the eggs every time you happen to see both birds out of the box. You leave well alone when young are getting ready to fledge. It is general management gained by experience.
It is so important for experience breeders like yourself to keep contributing the correct data so the inexperience can read numerous educated opinions.

[POLAR GOULDIANS]

I have looked at your responses and can agree wholeheartedly with one aspect of them : Never stop asking questions !, even if they might seem stupid. There is no such thing as a stupid question as long as it is asked in earnest. There does always seem to be a tiny minority on forums who will ask questions just to be annoying, but that is another matter.

The one thing I disagree with is providing wrong information with the best of intentions, to my way of thinking it's better to sit quietly than muddy the discussion with misinformation.
If you are truely not certain about your information or it is not your personal experience then maybe discretion is better. Again though, if a mistake is made acknowledging it is not a hard thing to do.
I doubt that this will result in people not getting answers, just that it may take more time but hopefully will be clearer when they get their answers.

What I would really like to see is more people talking about their experiences with their birds, which would allow people to check which area they are from and then judge for themselves whether the information is applicable to their own situation. I realise this does'nt suit everyone, but I certainly give a lot more creedence to a response that stems from someones personal experiences.

In the mean time I have been reduced to the beginner who has to come to terms with Quail mutations and Genetics in an attempt to be able to establish what direction to take with recent developments amongst my Quail.

These are the same Quail which I had begun giving away, as they seemed boring.