Video, Ham, tame gouldian 1st molt, eggfood brand?

[debbie276]

debbie276

Ouch !!! Thats horrible pulling out their feathers !

Yes it is. I don't hear people doing it now, either they stopped or just stopped talking about it.

[lovezebs]

debbie276

No feather pulling (just a bit of ) right at the moment, my friend. You just love the teasing woman, don't yeh?

[lovezebs]

Babs

I attempted some pictures, to explain what I had meant by the colours.

As you can see:

-Fledgling- has no real colour
-Not molting yet (or pre- molt as I call it) : you can start seeing a hint of colours, but baby is not molting as yet
-Starting to molt: you start to see bolder colours over belly and some breast colours
-Molting: you will see larger areas of bright colours

[debbie276]

When gouldians start to molt it can be weeks before you even notice because of the order of molt. First they will loose feathers you wouldn't notice as much as belly and head feathers. I love watching that first molt and the change from fledgling to adult.
It would be very unusual to not have an adult feather here or there from accidental feather loss. On a fledgling the colorful feathers of an adult are easy to spot.

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs


Elana, those pictures are a good play-by-play of what I should be looking for. I can see the back, wings and tail come in first. Then it looks like the lower belly yellow comes through. Thanks so much for showing me those

debbie276



Its exciting and scary this first time as well. I see how miserable some of them look during a molt. And as you know as well, handraising takes a ton of time and it would be tragic to lose one in a molt after all those hours of care.

Very different indeed to societies, which seem to just go through a molt like its nothing.

[Babs _Owner]

Here's some more of Ham and her molt (I know the face is supposed to molt last......but her face is molting FIRST. She is definitely going BH with RH undertones.

She is still extremely tame and gets very angry if the other sibling gets close to me. She will come when asked "Beep *finger snap*, c'mere and step up".

So she has only lost ONE tail feather which is now emerald. Yet all her facial feathers are coming in?? I included pictures so you can see behind all those black dots are indeed new feathers and pin feathers.

Is she molting backwards? Shes healthy happy.....and OMG SO jealous. I love her SO much. And she loves just every human in the house (and I mean a stranger could walk in and she craves attention). This bird I can say loves humans MORE than other birds. Her sibling were raised exactly like her. But if she isnt getting petted through the cage, she is trying to gnaw through the bars to get to us outside. We are now setting a free-flight zone in my office so she can be with a human during the day. She's chipping her beak trying to get out to us.

[Zebrafincher]

I hope she stays with you. If she was to go to a pet shop, they might not know she is very human imprinted.

Good luck with "Ham"

Kind Regards
Zebrafincher

[Babs _Owner]

Zebrafincher

Thanks for love Ham is not leaving our house under any circumstances. She is an amazing ambassador for the other juvie gouldians in the flight cage.

No matter how flightly her siblings are, she hops onto my hand and they follow (although unlike her, they dont let me respond in touch back). She loves the scratches.

Im hoping she can tame the now new wave of gouldians I have coming from my 2 breeding pairs, and like she taught her siblings, she will teach them to eat, jump and play from human hands.

Sadly I have to sell the rest of her siblings who do eat from the hand and flock to anyone's arm to pluck hairs, or just vist (semi-tame).

And out of quite a few babies I have on the way, She and 1 other will be the only ones I keep. I will NOT sell her , no worries there.

Im will be sure to let the new owners (whoever they may be) know that these kids are certainly NOT handshy.

[Zebrafincher]

Good to hear! Ham sounds like a keeper!

Zebrafincher

[Babs _Owner]

debbie276 lovezebs

I forgot to tag you both for the pictures above of Ham's molting head.

If you scroll up there are two pictures of this unusual molt. Any advice would be great!

[slwatson]

Babs

I love your video! It honestly warms my heart to see how sweet and friendly your birds are

[Babs _Owner]

slwatson

Thanks so much! I really adore them! Whoever ends up with them (except Im keeping Ham) will have some very friendly gouldians!

[lovezebs]

Babs

Hey girlfriend.

Don't you just love the patchwork quilt look ? LOL...

Did you mention that there are some red spots coming through on Hammy's head? If that's the case (correct me if I'm wrong Debbie), then she will be considered a Red head.

As to the way she's moulting, just give her time. She still has a long way to go.

I'm glad you decided to keep her. Hammy, is a darling little bird, and the fact that she has bonded so closely with her humans, is priceless.

Thumbs up for the free flight zone in your offfice. What will the canine brigade say about this new development ?

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs

Ham's mother Bri also has a visually black head with just a few red feathers, so yep technically she is a RH.

I'm relieved to know this is just normal molting I would would be incredibly sad if anything bad happened to her.

They certainly arent very attractive during this stage.

Its going to take a few weeks to bird proof the office. Her cage will be in the office with me (later I'll figure out who to pair her with). I dont want to separate her from her siblings until all her color comes in.

If we give her free flight for just a few hours a day.....the dogs are going to have to sulk on the living room couch during that time.

I'm waiting to see if any of Brats 3 juvies (with the 2 blues) will be compatible with her for company. But Alas, they are flighty.

[Spreckles]

Babs

How is Hammie doing?