When I came to the cage that has my Goldbreast pair that just raised 5 babies (which have been moved to a juvie cage), I see three birds! How could I have missed a baby, all thru fledging and weaning? Looked again, I had an extra adult male in the cage! How did that happen?
These cages are 1 x 1/2 mesh, and I had to cut out openings in each cage for the lip of the tube waterers. When I removed the waterers last night, I wondered about those 2 x 1 openings and planned to block them with empty waterers. Then the dog/skunk thing happened, and I forgot.
Apparently, this male Goldbreast got out of his cage thru this opening, and then entered the other Goldbreast cage which was next to his. Thank goodness, the male in the cage he entered is the only male that has a legband, so I could tell which male belonged in that cage. Otherwise, I might have broken up my proven pair. I did a quick head count, and he was the only one that was in the wrong place.
So I wonder--I had set the proven pair back up with a clean nest, and now another male did a sleepover with them--if they start setting on eggs within two weeks, who's the daddy?
