FINCHforum

OK, this may not be too smart, but I felt like I had to give it a try. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I have a young pair of gorgeous goulds who mated and incubated perfectly, but abandoned their nest when I had to move it when my basement flooded. The chicks hatched under my societies, but died while I was on vacation and a sitter was on watch. They laid another clutch of 6 but have not shown any interest in sitting more than a couple of minutes, so I moved the nest again to my societies (who will sit on ANYTHING).

I've also had a blue cap pair who laid 2 eggs in two different nests (one in each) and have been moving from nest to nest to incubate. I candled the eggs this morning (they must be about a week into incubation), and while one was infertile the other actually is developing! Given their incubation style (at the time of candling neither had been near either nest for about an hour), I'm taking a chance and popped it in with the gould eggs. My hope is that if miracles do happen and the chick hatches, it'll be about a week old before the goulds hatch so could hold its own. Is that crazy?

Hilary

That is some pretty interesting behavior from your cordon bleus! Incubating two nests at once, and with only one egg in each nest!

A week old chick in a nest with hatchlings could pose a problem for the hatchlings. Also the societies may stop incubating the eggs as the cordon chick grows, so the gould eggs may not get the chance to hatch.

I would also be worried about the gould hatchlings dying again due to exposure to the societies. I forget if you figured out the cause of their death last time, or if you were able to treat your societies for cochlosomosis and Campylobacter (two pathogens which societies can carry silently but which can kill gouldians).

I guess you do what you have to do... keep us updated on how things turn out!

I treated my societies with Ronivet about a month ago - would that take care of the two pathogens you mentioned? I suspect the gould chicks either died from old eggfood or the strange schedule of the sitter caused the societies to stop feeding them.

The cbs were so funny - I wold look in and the male would be sitting in one nest and the female in the other. They've laid single eggs in the past, but never showed a lot of interest in incubating for more than a couple of days. I was very surprised to find that one of the eggs was developing this time!

I suppose I could try moving the cb egg to my zeb cage.... They've never had the chance to try to raise anything, but do love to sit on their own eggs. I don't even know just how old this egg is - it may have been laid while I was gone and isn't even developing anymore. I just figured I'd give it a chance!

Hilary

Candle it again in a few days and see if the chick has gotten bigger or if it seems to move inside the egg. Either of those signs will show it is still alive and developing.

Ronivet S (an anti-protozoal) claims to have activity against cochlosoma, but Campylobacter is a bacteria so Ronivet S would not affect it if it is present.

Erythromycin is an antibiotic with some activity against Campylobacter, and it is sold under the brand name "Ornacyn Plus" at PetsMart. I ordinarily would not recommend treating birds with antibiotics unless you are sure they have the disease, but seeing as how the gouldian chicks did die last time, it would be worth treating your societies in this case (you shouldn't need to treat any of the other birds) for 8 days with the erythromycin. At least it will be one less thing to worry about.

Thanks Crystal! I'll pick up some tomorrow and keep my fingers crossed. It's just the 3 societies in that cage, so no problems with just medicated that group. Hope your little chicks are doing well!

Hilary

Update - I moved the cb egg out of the nest and into that of a zebra - figured what will be will be. She hasn't really sat except at night, but I wasn't too surprised. Better to lose it in the egg then to hatch it out and jeopardize both that new chick and the goulds due to hatch.

All 6 gould eggs are viable - I like to think my little first-time parents realized that and said "No WAY Jose - not for our first family!" We'll see - they're due to hatch in a week. Crystal, I just finished the erythromycin, so we'll see if that does the trick! The societies are keeping my hopping - every morning I have to steal the nest and take out the eggs they keep laying - first time they've tried that one on me (sneaky little buggers). Good thing they're extremely tolerant. I feel mean, but can't imagine if all 6 goulds hatch and then a week later they start hatching little societies as well. Not a good scenario.

Hilary

hi hilary
i dont want to rain on your parade,but i dont think zebras will rear anything other than there own,mainly because of the gape markings on the warious chicks.....but societys will rear anything that lays a white egg as for some reason they do not recognise the gape markings as being odd to them and as i said will rear anything that lays a white egg......mine have reared java chicks before today!


ken

Ken -

Mine was only a half-hearted parade, anyway, though thanks for the heads up. I wasn't even sure if the egg was still viable, and I knew I was probably sacrificing it if I moved it to the zebs (which I did, since she hasn't been sitting at all except at night). I just have the one society family, and figured that 6 definitely healthy eggs beat out one possibly developing egg. I have a huge order of mealies coming in, and am going to see what I can do to coax my cbs (especially the red-cheeked) into laying fertile eggs and staying on them this time!

Hilary

hi hilary
didnt mean to sound as if i was telling you what to do ,but in my experience it has never worked with zebras and this ling will show you why if you are interested.


ken

http://efinch.com/gape.htm

Man, that's a lot of hungry babes! Ken, I welcome advice - please always feel free to chime in with warnings, info, etc!! I'm still in the learning mode, and appreciate any help offered. I gave the egg to the zeb since I know she likes to sit, but didn't realize the feeding may be an issue, so thank you.

Hilary

hi hilary
no problems i will always try to advise rather than bully as i have been through the learning curves myself and welcomed any advise that was forthcoming as i myself am still learning even after all this time


ken

Update: The Ronivet and erythromycin must have worked, because I have 4 very fat 2 1/2 week-old gould babies being raised by the societies! Thanks again, Crystal.

Hilary

Congrats! I am glad to hear they are doing well!