FINCHforum

I need help here......I have two problems.

1- How do I stop my guardians from laying eggs before the babies leave the nest? Most of my pairs lay eggs on top of the babies and tend to neglect the babies?

2- the second problem is related to the first one. I started to loose alot of babies due to the fact of poor feeding one week after the babies leave the nest. Parents do excellent job until the babies leave the nest then for the first week they are doing fine. But then they tend feed less and less. They cause malnutrition before the babies start to fully eat on their own and loose some of them

When the pair neglect the week old chicks are they in a hurry to go back to nest?
Is there a chance that they are over stimulated to breed?
I think I would try to reduce the amount of protein a bit and see if that calms them down. The chicks need protein to grow so it will be a balance, enough for the chicks but not too much for the adults.

good luck, hope you can figure out what's going on with them.

Thanks for the reply. Parents start to neglect after the babies leave the nest and they do good job before that. This happening with many pairs in both individual breeding cages and the big aviary. but mostly in the big aviary. It seems only the big chicks who can chase them around have a good chance to survive.
I give them mix seeds, spray millets, fresh eggs food, egg food, and other treats. I am afarid if I do not give them egg food, they will abandon the chicks.

oh, ok I thought it was the ones that also like to lay eggs on top of chicks and then neglect the chicks.
Wish I could help more but I haven't had this problem first hand.
good luck

Haider

Once the chicks leave the nest, I would remove the nest box out of the breeding cage. Personally I have found, that without the nest box in there, they tend to concentrate more on the chicks (rather than breeding again).

As in regards to egg laying on top of chicks in the nest. As Debbie said, cut back a bit on the egg food (just a little bit ). Personally, I would simply remove the extra eggs if the chicks are being neglected.

Good luck.

Hello,
They are in a big aviary. All of the nests are fixed. I started to give them less egg food and more millets for the babies.

Haider

My gouldians also laid on top of their babies right before the babies fledged. Once the parents wanted to focus on the nest again, they chased the babies away (fortunately they had weaned the babies before focusing on the nest completely). And trust me, once my pair wanted to focus on the nest, they no longer wanted those babies around. I removed the juvies that same day.

If your nests are fixed, then I would block the entrance hole when the kids fledge and remove any eggs they laid. Mom & Dad have to focus on the fledglings. I hope that helps, as I can imagine it is truly heartbreaking to watch the juvies die

Debbie, you've never had a single gouldian not wean their kids ever?

I've had first year pairs not want to tend to chick's right away but most times can get them to feed in time. When I couldn't get them to feed I would foster under another pair or very rarely handfeed. I honestly can say once the chick's fledge I've never had a problem weaning any of them. Though I have to say older chick's and other adults do help feed fledglings.

Babs
Thanks for the reply. Yes it make me very sad as the babies near to be weaned before going through this rough stage. It make me even more sad coz I know the birds will die coz he become weak day after day and nothing I can do. I tries to feed them and put with societies and it did not work for me. My gouldians take at least 3 week after leaving the nest. This problem start to happen in the second week as the parents start to feed less and less, especially the hens.
I have other nest in the aviary and they could go to another nest and start new clutch there. I have one pair had one egg on the floor and the male tried to incubated coz I took the nest away. Funny but sad coz 2 babies died from that clutch coz dad was not so interested in feeding them. I have many breeding pair and all of them lay eggs within 2 week to 20 days after the first clutch hatch. not sure if it is good or bad sign, but it is not working for me.

Haider

Personally, I have found that cage breeding with Gouldians works the best for me.

When I notice a pair who are showing marked interest in one another, and whom I would like to breed, I pull them into a breeding cage, offer a nest box, and before you know it, there are eggs and babies.

As mentioned above, when and if they start laying before the youngsters are ready, I'd remove the nest , or block the entrance to the nest box. In your case however that's obviously not an option.

I know that many people community breed, but seeing as I'm not interested in large scale breeding, this works for me.

I would try to pull first time pairs into breeding cages, so that they will concentrate on raising their family. This way, you can have much better control on who is breeding with who, and also offers you the opportunity, to monitor what is happening in the nest box (such as supplementary handfeeding chicks if they need it, removing unwanted eggs, or blocking the nest box until your chicks are weaned).

More work, but worth the effort in my opinion.

Hi guys, I'm new to this but I believe I've read in other posts that you can try getting a society finch or two to help foster the babies while the Gouldians focus on their new clutch or vice versa remove the eggs and place them in a separate cage w/ the society finches to foster while the Gouldians focus on the current babies. Just a suggestion.

i do have society finches for emergencies.