Society Finch Plans: 2018-2019
Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 3:58 am
I'm going on vacation, and my friend is taking care of my birds for the time being. I won't have many updates for the next few weeks.
I will then be moving for school in August. I will probably bring the birds with me a week or two after I get everything else settled.
Between one and four weeks later, I plan to move Summer, Morty, and Floopy into a breeding cage for around three weeks. I would rather have Macbeth and Tacocat breed in the flight cage, so I won't move the pair. 16 days is the longest society finches seem to be able to store sperm, so three weeks of separation should guarantee that Macbeth will not inbreed with her sons.
I would like to double-clutch Macbeth and Tacocat so their offspring mature at around the same time. I would remove Macbeth's first clutch before she starts sitting tight, swap those older eggs with any newly laid ones, and add the newer eggs after Macbeth finishes laying her second clutch. Alternatively, I could foster Macbeth's first clutch under Summer, Morty, and Floopy. Either way, I'd like to add the three of them back to the flight cage after Macbeth finishes laying the two clutches; I could mark Macbeth's eggs to make sure she hadn't laid any since I reintroduced her sons. I bred Macbeth and Tacocat in the communal flight cage last year, and everything worked out, and keeping all of my birds in the same cage makes the most sense to me. All of this egg- and bird-swapping should take me to around September.
By three or four months old, the young society finches should have moulted into their adult plumage. This should occur around December or January.
If the schedule holds up, I will select the birds I want to keep by February. I'll see how things go, but I'll probably just keep the male offspring. If this is the case, I might sell Tacocat and Macbeth to make it easier to prevent inbreeding.
I would prefer to sell birds to people that I could keep contact with that live in a similar area to me. It sounds kind of morbid, but I'd like to have some of my birds' relatives under others' ownership in case some freak accident happens here and kills my birds. The chance is quite slim, but I'd rather this be one of those "work toward the best, prepare for the worst" types of situations. You know what they say about putting all of your eggs in one basket :/
Once I sell around half my birds, I would like to find mates for the remaining offspring. I'm definitely looking for chocolate selfs, but might pick up a chestnut self if I can find one. Red-brown and grey selfs would also be good, though I doubt I could find any. I will be looking exclusively for females unless I decide to keep any female offspring. Then, I will probably only get one male, or two if they are both high-quality and unrelated. Searching for new birds will probably take me until March or even June 2019.
All of these plans are subject to change, depending on my situation at school and other projects I may be working on. If I end up building a paludarium and getting back into reptile-keeping like I've been thinking for the last few months, the plans may be adjusted, delayed, or brought to a halt for a while. If I find some tricolored munias, they will be the center of my breeding efforts, so society finch breeding would be off the table until the tricolored munias were finished breeding for the year.
I will then be moving for school in August. I will probably bring the birds with me a week or two after I get everything else settled.
Between one and four weeks later, I plan to move Summer, Morty, and Floopy into a breeding cage for around three weeks. I would rather have Macbeth and Tacocat breed in the flight cage, so I won't move the pair. 16 days is the longest society finches seem to be able to store sperm, so three weeks of separation should guarantee that Macbeth will not inbreed with her sons.
I would like to double-clutch Macbeth and Tacocat so their offspring mature at around the same time. I would remove Macbeth's first clutch before she starts sitting tight, swap those older eggs with any newly laid ones, and add the newer eggs after Macbeth finishes laying her second clutch. Alternatively, I could foster Macbeth's first clutch under Summer, Morty, and Floopy. Either way, I'd like to add the three of them back to the flight cage after Macbeth finishes laying the two clutches; I could mark Macbeth's eggs to make sure she hadn't laid any since I reintroduced her sons. I bred Macbeth and Tacocat in the communal flight cage last year, and everything worked out, and keeping all of my birds in the same cage makes the most sense to me. All of this egg- and bird-swapping should take me to around September.
By three or four months old, the young society finches should have moulted into their adult plumage. This should occur around December or January.
If the schedule holds up, I will select the birds I want to keep by February. I'll see how things go, but I'll probably just keep the male offspring. If this is the case, I might sell Tacocat and Macbeth to make it easier to prevent inbreeding.
I would prefer to sell birds to people that I could keep contact with that live in a similar area to me. It sounds kind of morbid, but I'd like to have some of my birds' relatives under others' ownership in case some freak accident happens here and kills my birds. The chance is quite slim, but I'd rather this be one of those "work toward the best, prepare for the worst" types of situations. You know what they say about putting all of your eggs in one basket :/
Once I sell around half my birds, I would like to find mates for the remaining offspring. I'm definitely looking for chocolate selfs, but might pick up a chestnut self if I can find one. Red-brown and grey selfs would also be good, though I doubt I could find any. I will be looking exclusively for females unless I decide to keep any female offspring. Then, I will probably only get one male, or two if they are both high-quality and unrelated. Searching for new birds will probably take me until March or even June 2019.
All of these plans are subject to change, depending on my situation at school and other projects I may be working on. If I end up building a paludarium and getting back into reptile-keeping like I've been thinking for the last few months, the plans may be adjusted, delayed, or brought to a halt for a while. If I find some tricolored munias, they will be the center of my breeding efforts, so society finch breeding would be off the table until the tricolored munias were finished breeding for the year.