Aussie Finch Forum

hi I have gouldians which are losing feathers around their heads, looked at them with magnifying glass cant see mites, I have ivomectin them twice a month apart, I have coopexed the aviary twice a month apart. I dont believe it to be genetic as I have been breeding with 27pr for about 10yrs, I have also introduced the occasional new bird but not for about 2 yrs. I normally breed in excess of 100 young per year and select the my breeding stock accordingly. I was thinking it has to be my seed as they put their heads into the seed hoppers to feed, I did buy a bulk lot of seed last year from a new supplier. My seed hoppers hold approx. 20kg of seed . Any thoughts or suggestions welcomed thanks john

shnapper20 wrote:hi I have gouldians which are losing feathers around their heads, looked at them with magnifying glass cant see mites, I have ivomectin them twice a month apart, I have coopexed the aviary twice a month apart. I dont believe it to be genetic as I have been breeding with 27pr for about 10yrs, I have also introduced the occasional new bird but not for about 2 yrs. I normally breed in excess of 100 young per year and select the my breeding stock accordingly. I was thinking it has to be my seed as they put their heads into the seed hoppers to feed, I did buy a bulk lot of seed last year from a new supplier. My seed hoppers hold approx. 20kg of seed . Any thoughts or suggestions welcomed thanks john

I'd say in heavy moult....Read somewhere it was Iodine deficiency...Although I rarely see Gouldians using them I have broken bits of cattle Iodised salt licks for birds to chew on...plus they get spirinella in their softfood...

Agree with Ken though there is all sorts of idea's why this happens,imo it is stress related due to a good breeding season and it doesn't really harm the bird as it will moult back to normal at this time of the year for next year. Craig

I have discussed a similar situation with a very smart person with a huge amount of experience in Gouldian breeding.
Those discussions were why did some of my breeding Gouldian's mostly hens end up having bald faces and scalps.
His opinion is that they should be culled as it is a problem, I am not convinced and a future discussion has already been planned.
It generally occurs here when the birds build and lay a second time. Being outside, boxes can be regularly missed
and cleaned out after the chicks have fledged. The Gouldian's reline and as a result the gap from nest to the underside of the nest box
is reduced. I think they actually wear away the feathers trying to feed a number of chicks all trying to get in a feed first.
Once the season is finished for them they moult back to be fully feathered around the head.
I stand to be corrected but personal opinion is above and mites are not the problem here.

shnapper20 wrote:hi I have gouldians which are losing feathers around their heads, looked at them with magnifying glass cant see mites, I have ivomectin them twice a month apart, I have coopexed the aviary twice a month apart. I dont believe it to be genetic as I have been breeding with 27pr for about 10yrs, I have also introduced the occasional new bird but not for about 2 yrs. I normally breed in excess of 100 young per year and select the my breeding stock accordingly. I was thinking it has to be my seed as they put their heads into the seed hoppers to feed, I did buy a bulk lot of seed last year from a new supplier. My seed hoppers hold approx. 20kg of seed . Any thoughts or suggestions welcomed thanks john

how many are losing head feathers?

aviary bred or cabinet?

The birds I see the most seem to be cocks.I haven't had one for many years. Except a cock bird I brought in two years ago he was fine on the first year.This year he has balded. I will say though he has raised two large clutches and on the third. And these birds are huge.In this case I believe its stress. I wouldn't continue to breed from birds that do this myself.

sorry I took so long to get back to the thread ....fishing. I give the birds iodised salt in the carbon suppliment, however I have added a container of just iodised salt. Any birds showing signs of balding in the past I have moved on after the moult, I havent had many balding birds for the past few years, I cant remember having a bald black headed normal, yet 75% were effected. The birds are starting to feather up now with the new moult, however im at a lose as to why it happened, I intend to go back to my original seed supplier once this lot is used. The birds are in a 10m and an 8m aviary the young are removed and placed in a holding avairy (some of these had feather lose as well) The nesting boxes are removed after 2 rounds of breeding.

In my opinion if you have not had this happen before, stress was the cause even though they only had 2 rounds but if it is not stress from breeding other factors come in as well, like nest selection,mate selection and domination by some prs. Young gouldians are renowned for stressing before the moult so the few that have gone bald will clean themselves up with a decent quality diet and plenty of green seeding grasses. There's no need to get rid of your birds with the problem as next year might be entirely different. Craig

Well you did the main 2 things I would have started with is by treating the birds with ivermectin & then double checking by spraying with coopex, if it is stress related could you have mice running around at night or even in the day time.

"Well you did the main 2 things I would have started with is by treating the birds with ivermectin & then double checking by spraying with coopex, if it is stress related could you have mice running around at night or even in the day time."

Sorry I ment to say Moxidectin Plus not Ivermectin, I haven't used ivermectin for some time now