Aussie Finch Forum

While it was nice to see an increase of cutthroats over the last couple of years in the wider Melbourne area I believe it was mostly due to an increase in price about 3 years ago. They have never been very popular here and their price has crashed now, similar as with other species in the same situation. Lets hope more people buy them now at their cheaper price for their one sake and not just for their monetary value. I've always liked them and have kept them several times over the years. One of their advantages was that fledglings could be sexed immediatly without having to wait for month to do so. Alas this is no longer the case with some of them. Last years young were about 75% hens to cocks which was surprising as there are normaly more cocks. The surprise was even greater a couple of month later when somoe of those"hens" moulted into cocks.this year I fledged 2 young from one pair, one with a red slash and one without. Looking at the one without a few days ago I noticed it was moulting into a cock, so even nest mates can share this trait !Has anyone noticed this with their own birds? Cheers Mander

Hm very interesting , Ive gotten my 1st pair this year of Cutthroats and have some eggs soon to hatch , I love them and was very surprized at the low price for such a beautiful Bird , i havent seen many at all around here

Unfortunately free-breeding and relatively unattractive species such as Cutthroats always seem to only gain "popularity" when their price rises. Once the price falls & the widespread perception is that they are abundant and hard to sell, it usually doesn't take long for them to become uncommon again. They face the widespread (& often justified) reputation as a dominating/nest interfering species but when kept as an isolated small colony in an aviary of their own with a reliable livefood supply they are an enjoyable and productive species to breed.
I haven't had them with young cocks not showing the "cut" in their initial plumage but know others who have. There are a few sub-species which our stocks originate from so there is considerable plumage variation in our captive stock. I believe that this phenomenon would be reduced or eliminated by selecting stronger and thicker red coloured breeding stock.

Hi, glad to see this finch still has a few friends, it needs all the help it can get. It, with several other foreingn finches got a bad name as beeing aggressive over 30 years ago. In those days the only way to get info was through books which all came from overseas, mainly UK. The writers experience was based mainly on wild trapped birds with possible a few generation in captivety. The birds have become a lot more domesticated over the years and things that were true 30 years ago no loger apply. Due to this I did'nt get my first pairs till 1988 and have keept them in a mixed collection including African Waxbills. I never observed any aggression to other aviary inhabitans or indeed from their larger cousins, the Aberdeens. I wish more people would keep this finch before it goes the way of the Aberdeen.Cheers Mander

mander wrote:While it was nice to see an increase of cutthroats over the last couple of years in the wider Melbourne area I believe it was mostly due to an increase in price about 3 years ago. They have never been very popular here and their price has crashed now, similar as with other species in the same situation. Lets hope more people buy them now at their cheaper price for their one sake and not just for their monetary value. I've always liked them and have kept them several times over the years. One of their advantages was that fledglings could be sexed immediatly without having to wait for month to do so. Alas this is no longer the case with some of them. Last years young were about 75% hens to cocks which was surprising as there are normaly more cocks. The surprise was even greater a couple of month later when somoe of those"hens" moulted into cocks.this year I fledged 2 young from one pair, one with a red slash and one without. Looking at the one without a few days ago I noticed it was moulting into a cock, so even nest mates can share this trait !Has anyone noticed this with their own birds? Cheers Mander

' It's not what goes into the nest, what comes out of it that counts"