Aussie Finch Forum

i was just wondering when do the babies start their moult because i have 4 babies that were born in early march this year and they have barley even got their colours, just a few head and chest colours and thats it. im feeding them the right diet and they have all the room they need. should i be worrying or should i just wait until they colour up in spring time like the parents?????

Hi TheFinchMan101,
I have juviniles in exactly the same position...with others that are the same age well into their molt...I believe the birds who molt early are the ones to use as part of your breeding program....In Fiddler's book (The Gouldian Finch) he believes that this is natures way of sorting out the stronger birds...the first to molt are the first to breed...with bigger and healthier clutches...I tend to agree...cheers, Paul

I've found that the onset of moult in juvenile Gouldians is very largely dependent on diet and environmental factors. The harsher the environment and more austere the diet, the earlier will be the onset of moult. This is consistently observed each season as the young Gouldians which I catch out of breeding aviaries earliest and place into holding aviaries always moult first. The more crowded stocking rates in my holding aviaries and a basic seed, grit & water only diet seems to bring the moult on as a response to the more trying conditions.
So, in my opinion, the better you look after your young Gouldians the slower it will be before they moult.

Might it be that the youngsters that you take out early are the oldest ones that fledged first? Just a thought, but you could test this by not taking some out of the parents aviary, that are exactly the same age, leg ring them so there is no confusion, and comparing the difference in moulting times.

No, I meant earliest in terms of their maturity. Every season I have some breeding aviaries with young Gouldians left there for most of the season and others where they are removed due to stocking density issues & the ones who go to the holding aviaries first always moult first. Other birds of equivalent age left in breeding aviaries which are stocked lighter & have a far more extensive diet offered invariably are the last to moult.
I've discussed this issue long ago with a couple of long-term Gouldian specialists who had also found this to be the case with their birds. One of these blokes left all his young in the breeding aviaries until season's end and found that the young held in the most crowded aviaries were the ones to moult first.

Aaahhhh All is now clear. Seems to go against the theory that moulting birds need higher protein diet to get them through.

Maybe they they do need more to get them through the moult - that makes perfectly good sense. But it seems that the hardship is what actually initiates the process sooner.