Aussie Finch Forum

I'm really enjoying the fact that my Gouldians have bred for me this year but now it's got to the point where I think I need to stop them! I was planning on removing the boxes this weekend but today found 1 box with 3 young and I can also hear young in another box. So 2 boxes of young out of 3 pairs. This would give me around 20 young this season from 3 pairs. My question is: should I just leave them be after this round or take the boxes out? They still seem very keen to breed and I also have 2 spare yellowback males eagerly looking for partners. They chat up every female that comes in sight of them.

When will the young moult? If they miss out on the moult this season will I have to wait until next year before they colour up?

I have followed the 3 clutches then take away the boxes rule. I have had one instance where I didnt do that, it was with BFPF and the young died, that happened just the other week. So now its an unbreakable rule, all species....to much heartache for me otherwise.

I just keep removing the empty boxes as soon as the youngsters fledge.

Moulting.... I had a RH male bred last year that hatched out late in the season (13th August 2009 to be exact) and his head still has red and grey feathers, when I asked about this other forum members said it was because he hatched out late and he didnt quite make the full moult, so hopefully he will do a complete feather change after this moult.

Hmmm thinking about that so called late hatching date, makes me wonder what this next lot of youngsters will look like. My birds had a really late, and interrupted, start this year and consequently I still have a two clutches on the go, one clutch only a couple of days old. Oh well time will tell.

I do the 3 clutch rule but only after evaluation after the 2nd clutch ...if they have not lost weight and are healthy looking then 3 is the go , should be a sinch if the birds are on a good diet and have lots and lots of calcium.
The smaller the bird the quicker calcium reserves are used up .

Decission best made on a combination of number of clutches and number of chicks. eg. 2 clutches of 7 would be sufficent, but 4 clutches of 1 is also sufficent. And as Deb wisely said have a good look at the condition of the parents, if in doubt, stop early in preference to late.
LML

hehehe cranberry thats aweomse! Its a fun thing to have to do! Mate i remember when you were gonna give them up. Glad to see youve got a different problem of a much better nature

BENSONSAN wrote:hehehe cranberry thats aweomse! Its a fun thing to have to do! Mate i remember when you were gonna give them up. Glad to see youve got a different problem of a much better nature

Yes, it is awesome! Thanks for the kind words.