dead Gouldian chicks

[Retired hurt]

Gouldians had 2 chicks raised them to maybe ten days old and then left them.Any ideas on what we can do to stop this from happening? We live in northern Victoria and we have had a couple of cold nights.I new something was wrong when I went to check the birds and she was sleeping on the roost with her mate not in the nest.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
Retired Hurt

[spanna]

with chicks at 10 days old many finches stop sitting on their young as they generate enough body heat to keep themselves warm enough at night, but the odd cold snap may kill some chicks. it's sad, but that sounds to me to be the case. sorry to hear it.

[Fincho162]

Unfortunately a common occurence for some of the tropical species we keep - especially Gouldians, Red siskins and Tr-colours.

no rhyme or reason to Gouldiasn as the next nest they may sit right through to fledging as many of mine did.....hit, miss hit, miss............sometimes they sat sometimes they didn't.

Suggest that you get yourself a small oil-filled column heater and place that on low underneath the boxes............or arrange the boxes so you can!!Doesn't have to be close jsut enought o raise the tempa few degrees

We use this for Tri-colours and Red siskins down here with great effects....................extension cables snaking though the aviary may a look a bit odd at times but the end result is well worth it.

Good luck!!

[gouldianpaul]

If possible I would try and put a nest of 2 in with another nest of the same age....2 chicks cannot generate enough heat to keep themselves warm at night once the hen stops sitting at night....not always possible, but something I have done in the past when I have another small nest of the same age...another option would be to have a heat source under the box (small light globe) during the night until they feather up....not something I have personally tried, but have been told it works...cheers, Paul