Mixed aviary breeding advice

14 Jan 2015, 18:35

Hi All,

I keep pairs of the following.... Cordons, orange breasts, stars, painteds, red brows, ruddies, double bars and bengalese in an aviary 2900 wide by 1000 deep by 1900 high and so far to date in two seasons the bengalese have successfully produced many young and the ruddies have produced a few clutches but the rest haven't produced any at all, the cordons pair alternate entering and exiting the nest in hourly to two hourly intervals but nothing! Orange breasts sat on eggs last season and produced one young which died! Stars have never sat on eggs since day one! Painteds have sat on 3 lots of eggs but always abandon late for some reason! Red brows have never looked like getting it on! Double bars have laid but seem to have abandoned! I have several bushy Lilly pillys in the aviary as well as more than 3 cane nests per pair if they wanted to use them and feed all the necessary food such as meal worms, egg, soaked seed and plenty of greens. Is it possible the aviary is to small for 8 pairs?? Or is it something else? all advice is much appreciated.

Cheers.

14 Jan 2015, 18:37

I'd say the aviary is too small, i'd probably only have 2 or 3 pairs in something that size.

14 Jan 2015, 18:41

Personally I believe an aviary that size should have 2-3 pairs... 4 max. There are so many birds competing for the same food, nesting spots, territory etc + bengalese can be pushy and bother other finches out of breeding to their potential especially if they are reproducing like mice. Sounds like a good excuse for another aviary

14 Jan 2015, 18:48

Thanks guys I figured as much... I guess I was hoping for better news. The only reason I have so many pairs is because I used the calculator on the finch info website which when I entered my dimensions it suggested I could easily keep 18 to 20 birds. What to do now? Which pairs do I keep which pairs go? Lachlan I wish I could build another aviary I just don't have the space unfortunately. Which combination of pairs would breed easiest amongst each other do you think??

14 Jan 2015, 19:05

The Cordons, Orange breasts, Stars, Painteds, Red brows and Ruddies wont breed in that avairy.

The Bengalese will breed in anything.

All of the other breeds need space and privacy. The Cordons and Orange breasts will definitely prefer live food also. The others I dont have experience on.

14 Jan 2015, 19:14

From my experience I would keep the Ruddies, Painteds and OB's. Red broweds will be extremely hard to breed in that size aviary, the cordons will eat too much live food for the others to compete with unless you are willing to do it 3 times a day during breeding. Stars and double bars are good birds as well so this is a hard one.... You may be able to get away with keeping 4 pairs but as long as you have a holding cage an remove the young as soon as you can.

14 Jan 2015, 19:34

[quote="Lachlan1"]From my experience I would keep the Ruddies, Painteds and OB's. Red broweds will be extremely hard to breed in that size aviary, the cordons will eat too much live food for the others to compete with unless you are willing to do it 3 times a day during breeding. Stars and double bars are good birds as well so this is a hard one.... You may be able to get away with keeping 4 pairs but as long as you have a holding cage an remove the young as soon as you can.[/quot

Thanks lauchlan,

I couldn't part with the Stars so might have to keep the painteds, Orange breasts and ruddies too...are you interested in taking some off my hands?

14 Jan 2015, 19:56

I would mate but I'm set up for the season and have no room to spare. I'm sure you will find it pretty easy to move any of those on though. Cheers

14 Jan 2015, 20:00

Lachlan1 wrote:I would mate but I'm set up for the season and have no room to spare. I'm sure you will find it pretty easy to move any of those on though. Cheers

No worries mate... Thanks again.

15 Jan 2015, 21:10

Keep the Ruddies, they have bred so are happy and will continue to do so. Orange breasteds, Painteds and Double Bars laid so willing to breed if the problem is solved, so again I would go with them. That will still leave you with a fullish avairy, but if you do everything right it could work out. And if you do not have room for another avairy, how about a breeding cage type? It could be used as a holding cage for those you breed and sell, as long as it is a short term transitional residence.
LML