FINCHforum

I'm planning on building an indoor aviary and I'm wondering if mixing Gouldians/Stars/Shaft-tails would be wise especially if I encouraged breeding in there.

I've been keeping some of these birds for almost 2 years now (probably more), they were kept together for short periods without problems, my shaft tails are passive and not territorial at all even during their breeding season.

However, Shaft-tails are very loud and active meanwhile Gouldians are pretty much the opposite - so I'm not sure if that would be alright in the long run.

The aviary will be 7-8 ft by 3.5-4 ft . I will be separating specific pairs during the breeding season but since I failed to breed my Star finches in cages I want to try my chances in a larger space.

Any input will be useful

Personally, I wouldn't house my shaftails with my gouldians for breeding, for the reasons you stated above. Gouldians in my limited experience need a lot of privacy.

I have a mixed aviary that is 15 feet long and about 6 feet wide.
I have three breeding pairs of gouldians along with a pair of shaftails.
This is the second time I have put shaftails in there. The first time they never bothered the goulds at all. I did have to remove the cock because he was being mean to the hen only.

I have just put another pair in there with the hopes of breeding. The hen is a cream color and I wanted to produce some. So far no problems at all. I think the key will be if you don't have too many birds in too small of a place. I personally would give it a try.

I'm actually planning on breeding my Gouldians separately in breeding cages. It's the Star finches I want to try and breed in the aviary but of course the Gouldians/Shaft-tails may want to join in and I'm not sure if that'd be a mistake?

The main reason I'm building this aviary is because my flights are in terrible shape and I want to try and simplify my set up as much as I can - a single and spacious indoor aviary seems to be the best solution.

I moved all my birds into a temporary single flight cage yesterday to get rid of the filthy old flights and to start preparing/building their new aviary but most importantly to test how they'd get along and thankfully so far so good.

dfcauley, I just had a look at your thread - that cream Shaft-tail is stunningi - I wish I could find a cream or white one