Stuck in molt

[kyle]

Hello everybody,
It seems with every Clutch of Gouldian chicks I have I get one that is stuck in molt. They always turn out beautiful in the end but some times it's a year-and-a-half before I see their full adult colors. When I read about it I get the impression that it is fairly unusual. I'm wondering how often this happens with everybody else?

[paul-inAZ]

very rare for me.
Are they getting enough protein [egg food]?

[kyle]

paul-inAZ
They get boiled eggs, vegetables, Sprouted seed, vitamins and crushed egg shells about 3 times a week. All my birds are healthy and even those stuck in molt turn out to be beauties. They breed well and their chicks are robust. But in the last few years I have had 4 out of 30 birds with a delayed molt. One of the four was a juvenile that I bought over a year ago and is only now starting to color up.

[Dave]

Do your birds get seasonal weather changes--temperature up in summer, down in winter + day length up in summer, down in winter?

I don't raise Gouldians but I have a few, from one breeder. They looked rough until they went through a winter here (cooler, shorter day lengths). Now they are brilliant. Since I have experience with Canaries, I usually equate molting problems to lack of seasonality.

[Babs _Owner]

kyle Dave

I was just chatting with another breeder about this very thing a while ago, as I have two that just decided to stop molting. My adults also molt all different times of the year (not all at once).

All of her birds molted all the way through. We came up with a similar conclusion as Dave.

We give our birds almost identical diets.

The difference we could spot is I use full spectrum lighting on timers set at the same times year round, and she only uses natural sunlight (her birds are in a sunroom).

Now the question.....is it longer or shorter daylight hours that help trigger the molt ? I haven't had time to research that yet.

[cindy]

http://www.birdhealth.com.au/the-moult-part-two-

part one talks about molting season... keep in mind Australia's seasons are opposite ours.

There is a new product that is being offered in the states, developed in Australia called Naturally For Birds (Prima and Micro Nutrients) it is full of the nutritients and minerals the gouldians find in their homelands, some of the ingredients we can't get here in the states. You can try that also. I just started using it and including it in the aviary. In the states the only place to get it is glamgouldians.com Mike Fidler includes it in his chitted/sprouted seed.

[debbie276]

Mine all molt when it starts to get warmer and longer daylight hours in the late spring. After the molt they all go into breeding mode and last clutch is weaned usually mid December.
I've never used a supplement other then hard boiled eggs so can't comment on which are helpful or not.

[Dave]

cindy, have cage-bred Gouldians adapted to our Northern Hemisphere seasonality? I've not bred them, so I don't have experience with that.

[paul-inAZ]

Mine are indoors with supplemental timed lighting into the early evening hours. That is really for my viewing benefit. I don't alter the timing seasonally. As such there is not a lot of day length variation year round.
I see no particular molt season and they will breed at any time of year if fed a richer diet and given nest boxes.

[cindy]

Mine are in a large walk in lighting and I pretty much do the same as Paul. I do not use vitamins, supplements in water since it can spoil/grow bacteria in 24 hours, it is diluted and birds may not take enough in. Instead all is done via diet, pellets, Naturally and a variety of foods (supplements/powdered are added to soft foods/chitted seed).

I do not see a difference in any of my birds season wise... we are under air conditioning for a major part of the year, winter gets cool and heaters go on at 68 degrees.... most my Australian species including grasskeets breed year round with breaks in between.

[paul-inAZ]

Dave:

have cage-bred Gouldians adapted to our Northern Hemisphere seasonality?

Any birds we have here have been cage bred for many, many generations. Maybe 20 or 30? The export ban from Oz went into effect decades ago so all are northern hemisphere adapted birds.

[Fraza]

paul-inAZ
They get boiled eggs, vegetables, Sprouted seed, vitamins and crushed egg shells about 3 times a week. All my birds are healthy and even those stuck in molt turn out to be beauties. They breed well and their chicks are robust. But in the last few years I have had 4 out of 30 birds with a delayed molt. One of the four was a juvenile that I bought over a year ago and is only now starting to color up.

I give egg everyday of week not sure about Gouldians tho never had them

[paul-inAZ]

I give egg everyday of week not sure about Gouldians tho never had them

so why respond?

[lovezebs]

kyle

Hi Kyle,

This past year has been really bad when it came to my Gouldians moulting. It was absolutely terrible, with my Gouldians looking like cheap imitation fake birds, that had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Finally on the advice of a long time breeder, I bought some Feather Fast (never needed it before) and boy oh boy what a difference it's made. Most of the kids, (even one that I'd thought was a gonner), are either finished their moult, or growing pin feathers like mad. I would highly recommend it, along with a good diet (which I know your bird babies get anyway).

[cindy]

AviVita Gold by AviTech is another really good supplement and it has important amino acids in it as well... add it to soft foods, accepted well!!