Yellow backed goildians

[Gympie birds]

I read a recent article in qld finch society about blue mutation Gouldians that they cannot produce vitamin A and need to be supplemented as this stops death during moulting and young birds.
Would this be the same for the yellow backed mutation as I kept them in the past and lost a lot of chicks before they moulted or just as they were moulting. Would this be the same? Or is it something else?
I wanted to maybe try to breed the yellow backed goudlians i the future.

[finchbreeder]

Can't speak to the robustness of the birds on the east coast. But here in WA we do not feed any colour mutation anything but lots of healthy seeding grasses, a little egg food, and a good quality seed mix. The majority of them survive without any problems. We are particular about wind protection.

[Craig52]

That is correct, the blue mutation lacks Vitamin A and E and cannot make amino acids to survive past moulting. The most common product being used is soluminavit that can prevent these problems. Most breeders including WA are using this product but won't hurt using it on other gouldian mutations and normals infact all finches will benefit from this product.
The product is produced by Allfarm company in Victoria and can be purchased online.

[Gympie birds]

Sounds good , if I buy some yellow backed in the future I will give it a go and see if breeding results change for me. It would be interesting if it does

[finchbreeder]

Let me clarify my statement.
Country WA breeders use no supplements and have a very high survival ratio.
"Vitamin A, C, E and most of the B group vitamins are readily available in fruits, vegetables, greens and grains. Birds with access to a diverse high quality diet including seed, half ripe seeds, various greens and livefood when they need it should not suffer from vitamin deficiencies (Dr. David Shultz – Everybird).28 June 2017"

[Craig52]

Fb blues certainly do need extra vitamins minerals and amino acids to survive anywhere in Australia in particular vitamins A +E
All other mutations are strong and don't need anything other than a good diet.
Blues cannot manufacture Vit A from their diet. Usually young blues get itching eyes and rubbed on perches followed by severe diarea and death in a very short period of a couple of days. Once they get through the moult they are not so dependent on soluminavit but does not hurt to to continue it for their health care.
The problem does not occur in split for blue.

[finchbreeder]

I can still show you Blue birds that are flying round breeding this year from last years hatch that are Blues from blue to split blue and have had nil additives at any time. Yes I am100% sure. Was looking at them less than an hour ago. They are paired to outcross normals this year.
I'm not saying they might not do better with additives - just that it is possible without anything but the right natural foods, and effort.

[Gympie birds]

Very interesting, I am new to Gouldian mutations, I have gone back to normal pure birds for now as I had yellows in the past with huge losses of young birds. I could not finger out why. My avaires are arched avaries maybe too much exposure to the elements ?

[finchbreeder]

I have very little success with Gouldians in my avairies as I feel the birds get too much wind and sun exposure.
However in mothers very well protected avairies where they get little wind and filtered sun - all colour types have been bred without any additives or difficulties. Copious amounts of seeding grasses and a small amount of egg food are all they get besides the normal seed and water.