Aussie Finch Forum

Hey Guys, my little finch who I have been hand rearing since April is now feeding itself, the problem is, he feeds all day and I mean ALL day. It sits in the feed and just never stops. I have only seen it take water for the first time today. Seems ok but to me seems really dehydrated, it still looks for food from me but I can see it's crop is really really full with seed. I have it in a seperate cage from the other finches, with a single yellow back and it is obviously happy, but it is a guts. Is this normal? I have read not to over feed, but what do I do if it is feeding itself. Please any suggestions! It is a lovely little fellow but, just a guts. It still does not have all it's feathers so I can clearly see it's crop.???????????????? cheers Deb

well, I'm glad to hear he's happy and he's done well thus far

as for the eating thing, I'm not too sure, I've never had anything like it. maybe someone can chip in?

Probably best to move this to Health ;)

Hi Deb,

Check the bird's droppings for signs of undigested food especially seeds.
If this is the case, then he may be having problems digesting his food. You may also notice that he is quite thin. Because they are unable to digest their feed, they are always hungry and so always eating.
This may be caused by a yeast/fungal infection in the stomach, but there are other nasties that can also cause this problem.
He really needs to see a vet to get to the bottom of the problem.

However you can try acidifying the pH in her digestive tract with unfiltered, unpasteurised apple cider vinegar at 10mls/litre drinking water for 7 days, and providing some easily digestible food like the hand rearing mix.

Good luck!

my little hand reared gould is now feeding itself as well, and for the first week it did the exact same thing, nonstop eating machine. did what myzo has suggested here and checked droppings for undigested seed but was all good, but I think i had just been underfeeding a little, so it was catching up and getting its body weight back up.

mine started taking water by itself around the same time, and they are generally pretty clever. as long as the water is in the same position, if it's thirsty, it will find it. as long as it looks bright eyed and is active it should be fine, but since it's tame you can keep a close eye on it without any stress to it!

You say you have been feeding since April, so how old do you think the little baby is? I tried the hand raise thing and ended in grief. If your bird is feeding by itself and performing like a guts then , in my mind, it is trying to probably make up for the little things that it missed out from being hand raised. I had the same issue with a chick that was starting to wean, gutsed itself on hand feeding and also on food in the cage. Should have lessened the handrearing mix dramatically on the first indication of self feeding because the mixture of the hand feed mixture and new seed didn't mix. Try the apple thing if you like but if you haven't used it through the hand rear stage then the fungus stage will be too far gone and really wont assist. Any how good luck. If it is eating by itself then you shouldn't have too many wories. Just don't be a softie and hand feed it every time it begs when you get near the cage. Hard love wins out most times.

Thankyou to everyone for your advise. The parents had stopped feeding it for sometime before I took it out of the nest so I'm not real sure how old it is. I had no hand rearing mix when I started to feed it so fed it on arrowroot biscuits and baby apple sauce for some time over the easter break as I was waiting for the mix to be posted to me. I then put the hand rearing mix in with my mix so thats what it's been on since. When I started feeding it, it was probably about every 2 hours. Recently it has only been about every 4 hours. When I saw it was feeding itself, I cut it down to twice a day. Now only once in the morning, the rest of the time it sits in the seed and EATS. It's droppings all seem normal. I will try the cider, it will be alright for the other finch?? I have noticed also when I was feeding it, it's skin was a lovely light pink colour, now it's a really dark pink, and a bit wrinkly thats why I thought it looked dehydrated. I think the vets might be the go as I don't want to lose it, and it's my very first baby to survive.
My goulds have 4 eggs now which are due to hatch any day. Just hoping I won't go through what I did last time.
Thanks again for the advise. It makes such a difference being able to talk to someone. Cheers Deb