Gouldian pair, male not interested?
Posted: 09 Mar 2019, 11:04
Hi all
I got my first pair of Gouldians last year, and being my first pair I haven't really had high hopes of them breeding but I thought I'd give it a try this year and as expected I've had some trouble. Thought I might reach out here see if I can maybe learn a bit about what's going wrong so I can improve my chances in the future. They are currently housed in a parrot cage but I have gathered nearly all the materials I need to start constructing some suspended aviaries and will likely begin on my first non-suspended aviary after that if all goes well.
My main concern is that the male might not be interested in the female. She's a bit bigger than him (not sure if that's age related or genetics, I unfortunately don't know their history), and I'm worried she's bullied him a bit. They don't fight or anything but she sometimes stands up tall and leans over him on the perch and he hunches low and leans away, and sometimes when he's eating she flies back and forth constantly, landing near him over and over and it seems like she's harassing him a bit?I believe I've seen him doing this too but she does it a lot. They rest next to each other on the perch at night but usually not directly touching. She has landed near their boxes and looked but not gone in, and he seems to show no interest at all.
I was curious and played a video on my phone of gouldians mating dance to see if he would show interest in the noises and was surprised to find the female got super excited chirping along the same way the female in the video was reacting to the male, but my male bird didn't seem very fussed, looked around a little but didn't seem sing back at all. The female does seem to chirp to him a bit, but he is very quiet and reserved.
Is he maybe to old/young? Has she bullied him to much or they maybe just don't like each other? Any info or insight into their behaviour would be greatly appreciated.
I got my first pair of Gouldians last year, and being my first pair I haven't really had high hopes of them breeding but I thought I'd give it a try this year and as expected I've had some trouble. Thought I might reach out here see if I can maybe learn a bit about what's going wrong so I can improve my chances in the future. They are currently housed in a parrot cage but I have gathered nearly all the materials I need to start constructing some suspended aviaries and will likely begin on my first non-suspended aviary after that if all goes well.
My main concern is that the male might not be interested in the female. She's a bit bigger than him (not sure if that's age related or genetics, I unfortunately don't know their history), and I'm worried she's bullied him a bit. They don't fight or anything but she sometimes stands up tall and leans over him on the perch and he hunches low and leans away, and sometimes when he's eating she flies back and forth constantly, landing near him over and over and it seems like she's harassing him a bit?I believe I've seen him doing this too but she does it a lot. They rest next to each other on the perch at night but usually not directly touching. She has landed near their boxes and looked but not gone in, and he seems to show no interest at all.
I was curious and played a video on my phone of gouldians mating dance to see if he would show interest in the noises and was surprised to find the female got super excited chirping along the same way the female in the video was reacting to the male, but my male bird didn't seem very fussed, looked around a little but didn't seem sing back at all. The female does seem to chirp to him a bit, but he is very quiet and reserved.
Is he maybe to old/young? Has she bullied him to much or they maybe just don't like each other? Any info or insight into their behaviour would be greatly appreciated.