FINCHforum

My gouldians have from 17 to 22 days of birth and I have some questions:
1. When it's time for them to get out of the nest?
2. The nest inside is really dirty (you know what I mean ) should I leave it like that and wait until they get out of the nest?
3. I was reading in the forum about finch life cycle: What does fledging means? What does weaning age means?

Here's a photo of my gouldians nest:


Now, lets talk about my Shaft-Tail. They build their nest in an oval nest. For us the nest appears to be small for the 5 eggs they laid and they put a lot of branches in the bottom doing it very high, close to the entrance. We are worried about it because:
1. The bottom of the nest is very close to the entrance and the eggs probably could fell on the floor .
2. The nest looks small and thight, are the babies going to fit in there with no problems when they grew? should I leave it like that and see what happends or can I transfer them to a square cage?

Here's a photo of my Shaft-Tail nest, the nest they use is the one on the left; the other on the right we take it out. As you can see, they build the nest in a no top nest (we cut it) but then they build the top.

"To fledge" is to leave the nest for the first time. ("Fledgeling" is the name of a baby bird who has just left the nest for the first time.) In the chart "fledging" is the time the babies will get out of the nest.

Don't worry about cleaning out the gouldian nest yet. After all of the babies have left the nest on their own, you can clean it out.

Weaning age is the time at which the babies will be eating all by themselves and will no longer need their parents to feed them.

The shaft-tail nest might be overstuffed and it is possible for the eggs to be knocked out on to the floor accidentally. The pair probably will not appreciate you trying to move their nest into the square nest box, but you could gently push the nesting material in their oval nest down so that it has a deeper bottom. If you have to, you can remove some of the nesting material from the bottom of the nest, but doing this usually messes up the whole nest (it is difficult to remove just some of the nesting material without compromising the rest of the nest). The parents will probably want to repair any changes you make. If there is any extra nesting material in their cage, remove it so that they can't build the nest any further. Be careful not to break any eggs as you manipulate the nest--you may want to temporarily remove the eggs while you are making adjustments.

The babies might have a difficult time fitting in the nest comfortably if it is really tight inside. If you pack the nest down now, you might be able to avoid this problem by creating more room inside of the nest. Next time (for future clutches), don't provide your pair with a small oval nest. Only give them larger box nests or "jumbo" sized oval nests and a limited amount of nesting material so that they cannot overstuff their nest in the future.

Crystal wrote:"Next time (for future clutches), don't provide your pair with a small oval nest. Only give them larger box nests or "jumbo" sized oval nests and a limited amount of nesting material so that they cannot overstuff their nest in the future.

We use the no top oval nest because my husband read (I dont know where) that the Shaft-Tail build their nest without top; and our surprise was that they build the top (more work for them but it is perfect) , that was funny! When you said large you mean the one we have in the photo at right or is there any other larger? I am going to see if I found the "jumbo", that would be perfect for future breedings . I'm going to try to take out some branches and pull them down.

Thank you so much Crystal. I appreciate your help and compromisse with all of us.

I am sorry, I was not Log In so I wrote as a Guest with two different messages .

In my experience, the oval nests come in small, large, and jumbo sizes. The jumbo size is something like 6" x 5" and the small is 4"x4"... with the large being somewhere in between.

I can't quite tell what size you currently have from your photo.

Generally it's best to limit your pairs to 3 clutches a year for breeding, mostly because laying eggs and raising young is such a drain of the birds' resources and you want to give your pairs a break each year.

Whatever season your birds want to breed in is the "best" season to breed them (weather permitting, if you are outdoor breeding).

Usually the birds will start their second clutch when they feel ready to... and this usually occurs around the time they are weaning their current babies. Some species tend to be a little overzealous about starting a new clutch before their current clutch is weaned, but I don't recall shaft-tails really having this problem.

Thank you Crystal.

Since my lady gouldian is breeding her beak has change of color from light to black in some areas. Is that normal? You can see the difference in colors in this photo. Thank You.

The hens beak will turn black when the hen comes into breeding condition and is perfectly normal.

I'm not sure if your question in your original post was answered regarding what age the gouldian chicks will fledge - it is usually around 3 weeks of age. Most breeders will remove the chicks from the parents when most of the nodules have fallen off.

As for cleaning the nest - if it is really dirty, I will go ahead and clean it out. I always have extra nests so I just get a clean nest ready, transfer the chicks to the clean nest and put the nest back in the cage. My birds are use to my looking in their nests so this does not bother them.

TammyS wrote:The hens beak will turn black when the hen comes into breeding condition and is perfectly normal..

Thank's Tammy, now I'm relax . My gouldians have from 19 to 24 days of age and they don't want to get out of the cage .

Probably this is a dumb question but here it is:

If we like to breed a pair of birds again, should we use the same cage (already clean) with the same coconut fibers or we have to put new fibers on the floor so they can build a new nest? Thanks . I think a new nest is better to prevent bacterias or other nesting residues on the used nest .

The same cage would be best as they are familiar with it. The nest should be thoroughly disinfected if possible or replaced if not. You may want to think about investing in a plastic nest box which can be cleaned fairly easily.