Aussie Finch Forum

I've got a very nice pair of gouldians yellow back split blue cock bird and a blue back hen the problem is that they hach the eggs but don't seem to feed the chicks how can I fixs this problem do I pull the eggs and put them in a nest or let them hach and pull the baby's ??

How old are the birds? Sometimes it takes a few tries for them to get the hang of raising young.

Sometimes regretfully it can take a couple of lost clutches for the "feed the babies" instinct to kick in. There are options of you have other pairs of gouldians.

You could let them try again and if they dont feed try placing the babies with the another pair providing they are in a similar stage of breeding raising.
Swap eggs, either all or some.

Last resort (for me anyway) would be to try hand raising. Ive found its really hard and my only successes were with slightly older chicks.

The birds are 2 years old and it will be the 3 lot of chick they have lost.

Oh that will be frustrating for you.
If they were mine I would certainly be thinking about setting up a couple more pairs and swapping eggs. Any babies that do hatch from the normals eggs under the blues and are not being fed, could, if the timing fits be placed back with any normals that have babies at the time.

Other possibilities is splitting the pair up and putting a mature/proven chick raiser with each bird till they get the hang of it. Might make for a few unknown splits but if it works to get your birds feeding those babies.....

I persume you are stimulating their feeding instinct with green seeding grasses? And that you have other pairs that are succeeding?
LML

Maybe you should be thinking about a few pairs of Bengalese for fostering duties. I do not breed those type of Gouldians, but I hear Bengalese are all the rage overseas.

Wish me luck the blue hen is back on 8 eggs

Karl, I had that last year with 4 pairs of Rh WB Greenbacks. Not 1 bird to the perch for the whole season from them lost about 50 young from that lot. All first year birds.

AMCA26

Making me feel better after last years dismal result. I got 4 as compared to 80 odd the season before.

Ken.