New gouldians nesting

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sun May 11, 2008 7:47 am

I am little stumbled on what to do. As most of you know, I have an open aviary. Three weeks ago I purchased a male yellow back. Apparently he and another of my normals have decided to start a little family. There were 4 eggs, but I saw no one sitting so decided to put the eggs under my societies which had just began sitting. So I swapped the eggs to see what would happen. (silly me). Now, both gouldians are taking turns sitting on the eggs (society eggs) and protecting the nest. They are young and I would not have chosen this, but........
So do you think I should leave things are they are, or swap back the eggs.
I know they are first time parents and even if they managed to hatch the eggs I am afraid they will toss. Their nest if 6 feet from the gound, so a nestling would never survive that. Any thoughts..... I should have left things alone I suppose.

chrischris · Post by **chrischris** » Sun May 11, 2008 8:39 am

Hi dfcauley,

I have done the same thing in the past only to be really didappointed. In my case I swapp dummy eggs from a nest of gouldians to dummy society eggs. The Societies hatched the eggs and seem to do well with feeding the young but after 1 week one by one the chicks were dying. Was told that this was due to the fact that societies carry camptobacter bacteria that kill gouldiand but not the societies. With one chick it seem to live till 5 weeks stunted in growth and finally died. I hate societies and am going to get rid of the pair I have.

What I have found is that gouldians make excellent parents but they have a learning curve. Give them time and space and they'll prove to be the best parents ever. Almost all of my gouldians messed up the first few times as parents. There were infertile eggs, refusal to feed the chicks, one did the chick tossing thing and total nest abandoment. Oh yes it's fustrating but I must say that these parents are now my best gouldian pairs. They raise huge clutches of 5-6 eggs without a problem and feed the chicks really well to weaning time.

So my advice. I would switch the eggs back and just let them learn. I have pairs that were excellent parents at the first go so you might be quite suprise.

Chris

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:21 am

Thank you Chris for the advice. I was inclined to do just that. So I went ahead and put the eggs back under the gouldians and they went right back to sitting. I was concerned about that. They are young, but I agree parent raised is always best. If they don't succeed this time maybe next....

But.... I do love my little crested societies. It is the zebras that I don't care for.

Thanks again!

chrischris · Post by **chrischris** » Sun May 11, 2008 10:27 pm

Time and patience will give you very good parents.

Chris

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sat May 24, 2008 3:43 pm

okay, after putting the eggs back as advised..... yeah...... one hatched this morning. So far so good. The parents are both pretty young, but mom is sticking close and so far no pitching or abandoning. Three more eggs left to hopefully hatch. I know they are all fertile because I candled them.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Sun May 25, 2008 1:10 am

all the best df, hope all the eggs hatch for you. dont forget though you now owe us pics lol

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sun May 25, 2008 9:53 am

mickp wrote:all the best df, hope all the eggs hatch for you. dont forget though you now owe us pics lol

Two more eggs hatched this morning! I am sooo excited. They seem to be doing fine and the parents are doing a great job so far.
Two left to hatch. Hopefully. I am sooo hoping for a yellow back like the dad.

Post by **Sally** » Sun May 25, 2008 12:15 pm

Congrats on the babies! To me, this is the fun part of having finches, watching those babies grow up.