Aussie Finch Forum

My african fire pair having 3 babies already even though they are havent finished their first molt yet. The cok still have all brown coat with a few red feathers along his body. Is it normal when they can breed such early? the 3 babies are flying and eat alrady but still calling their parents and begging

Many estrillid finches will breed before they are coloured-up as they are opportunistic breeders in the wild but it is generally recommended that you don't let them breed until the next season. This doesn't mean you have to wait until they are exactly 12month old as there are birds that continuously breed and those that have spring & autumn peaks so you can't pick their ages exactly if you don't know the breeder. Breeding birds should be more than 6 months old before you attempt to breed them. If you don't let the birds mature you risk egg-binding and loss of your hen as it takes time for them accumulate the calcium reserves in their bones to form a full clutch. Another concern is if you buy a "pair" from a singe source you risk purchasing siblings which might explain the small clutch as there will be greater expression of undesirable recessive genes when you mate closely related birds.

I bought my pair from very good source and they are unrelated and I know they are a real pair. Because they haven't fully colour up so I though they are still too young, and that's why they in the same aviary.However I didnt know they can be ready that early

VN. Thực hiện tốt. bạn đang có một khởi đầu tốt.


English. Make good. You are a good start.

loz wrote:Thực hiện tốt. bạn đang có một khởi đầu tốt.

Translated by Bing Translator
Made good. you are a good start.
http://www.bing.com/translator

GregH wrote:Many estrillid finches will breed before they are coloured-up as they are opportunistic breeders in the wild but it is generally recommended that you don't let them breed until the next season. This doesn't mean you have to wait until they are exactly 12month old as there are birds that continuously breed and those that have spring & autumn peaks so you can't pick their ages exactly if you don't know the breeder. Breeding birds should be more than 6 months old before you attempt to breed them. If you don't let the birds mature you risk egg-binding and loss of your hen as it takes time for them accumulate the calcium reserves in their bones to form a full clutch. Another concern is if you buy a "pair" from a singe source you risk purchasing siblings which might explain the small clutch as there will be greater expression of undesirable recessive genes when you mate closely related birds.

That may be the case with many other species but in the case of Ruddies I strongly disagree. Other than the Zebra Finch, Ruddies are the earliest maturing estrildid species I know of. They are a relatively short-lived species with a relatively short breeding life and this early sexual maturity is most likely a natural adaptation of the species to maintain reasonable breeding output in the face of a relatively short life. I have always made up young, partly coloured pairs whenever possible whilst pairing up new Ruddy pairs and most of them readily breed prior to full adult colour by the male and generally turn out to be dependable breeders thereafter with egg-binding very rare for the species in early rounds. I never buy fully coloured Ruddies when seeking new stock. I still recommend resting breeding pairs from breeding activity for part of the year to maximise their useful breeding life but don't hesitate to ensure young birds by pairing up partly coloured young Ruddies.

This is just my first pair and to me, they seem to be very good parents.

P/S : Loz, Are you Vietnamese I can read that ^_^ I'm in Geelong too, maybe we can have a meeting somewhere.

garry h wrote:

loz wrote:Thực hiện tốt. bạn đang có một khởi đầu tốt.

Translated by Bing Translator
Made good. you are a good start.
http://www.bing.com/translator

Well that's just great Loz,so now we have to go to a translator to read what you said,surely you could have written what you said under all that mumbo jumbo. Craig.