FINCHforum

If one was to house 6 gouldians in a 3'x2'x6' cage while they were young will there be an issue when they grow together and reach sexual maturity and are looking to breed?

Chris

Just the same issues as with any mixing of cocks and hens ;)

They may pair up on their own, meaning you'd have to seperate them (out of sight and earshot of the other) for a while so they they will accept a new mate (if your wanting to breed specific pairs).

Other than that, if you don't provide any nestboxes or nesting materials you should be fine.

If I was to put 2 nesting boxes would I be asking for trouble? or will there still be peace if all the finches were in the same cage for a while?

Chris

With gouldians I doubt you'd need to worry about agression, but whether they'd breed with the distraction of other birds will depend on your individual birds. Some will, and some won't. The down side is that you won't know for sure who the fathers are of any chicks who do fledge. If you're not looking to breed, you'll probably be fine.

Are you suggesting that the female gouldian might breed with more than one male when in a flight cage with other male goulds?

Chris

Whenever you put a lot of finches in one flight cage, they could breed with any of the other birds. I have a male society in my flight cage that has clutch after clutch with his primary society mate, but the other day I watched him mount one of my star hens. Big cheater! As his wife was laying on his eggs! Geez...

But did that star hen have a mate or not? It just means that if there are too many hens to males that 1 male may breed with more than one hen.

But in the case of gouldians that are so private birds do you feel or see this kind of activity also going on? I could see it in societies that have a tendency to sleep all together, but goulds?

Chris

Well I was thinking more along the lines that they may pair up in ways you didn't expect or want...

Example: I purchased two males from one source, and two females from another, a yellow head and red head of each.

I put them all in the same flight, originally intending to breed yellow head to yellow head and red head to red head (I was getting my breeding size cages setup at the time, and needed to put them all in the same flight for a couple of days). After just a couple days they had already paired themselves up, Red to Yellow, Red to Yellow...

Oh well, such things do happen.

I've read that some of the bigger breeders maintain two flight size cages next to each other, so that they can put the hens in one cage and the cocks in the other. They can all still see and hear each other, but no mating can take place, and since hens can store sperm for up to around 16 days, you don't get any "unexpected" surprise chicks.

That way you can try and pick cocks and hen's for the traits you want.

And the main reason for knowing the parentage of your baby birds is that in the future, you don't unknowingly pair one of those babies to its own father. If you only plan to sell the babies and not use any of them for breeding later on, then I guess it wouldn't be as important.

Good points made but it's also important not to let the goulds pair themselves up because if you want to pair them for genetic reasons you may later not be able to repair the gould with a new partner.

That happened to me. I put a gould hen in with a gorgeous boy, but had another male in a separate cage several feet away. She would stand in the corner for hours, watching the "other" male, and totally ignored her chosen mate. I finally gave in and switched males, and BOY was she happy!

Hilary what if the other male was in the room but the hen could only hear him and not see him. I ask this because I stack my cages so the finches can hear each other but not see the other pairs. Will it make the hen search for a different mate if she is not happy with the one choosen for her?

I don't know if she was searching per se, I think that Barnaby just caught her eye and she was smitten. A hen may just not be into a chosen male. Some say that if you wait long enough they'll eventually come around because there is no other choice, but if they can hear others I don't know.... I've waited months before separating pairs, and sometimes the hen just doesn't change her mind. I'd say it depends on how patient you are!

How long is long enough?

Three, six, nine,... or more months?

I've probably waited 3 months before switching out one of the partners.