closed banding gouldians

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:14 pm

I will (hopefully) be closed banding my 4 gouldian chicks tomorrow, however, I have a concern I'm hoping you might have some insight on. My big concern is that the parents might abandon the chicks once I disrupt them. Has this ever happened to anyone? As far as parenting goes, these 2 are doing a great job-very devoted (1st time parents), but they are rather flighty and skittish when I come around. This has always been the case (I say always meaning the whole 2 months I've had them). When I reach into the cage they fly all over the place like crazy. I've tried to set the food & water close to the front of the cage so I don't have to reach in very far. It seems to work ok. They are not very adventurous eaters unfortunately.
Anyway, what has been your experience with closed banding?

Post by **Sally** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:46 pm

Can't help you there, as I've never closed banded. However, I guess I will learn as I just ordered some. I think the parents will be OK, lots of people do close band, especially with Gouldians.

Nipper06 · Post by **Nipper06** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:12 am

I'm not expert at this but I close-banded this baby Green Singing Finch a couple weeks ago (the first time I banded a finch!). I just waited until the mother left the nest before I grabbed it. Then I banded it and put it right back. The mother was a little annoyed but she went right back to her baby.

In this case, there was only 1 live baby and 2 "dud" eggs that never hatched. But if there were more young, I think I would still only take one baby out at a time - and then just carefully swap babies one by one until they were all banded. I wouldn't take all the babies out at once because that might really freak out the mother to suddenly have an empty nest.

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:49 pm

Thanks for your replies. Glad you did it Nipper! Unfortunately, I tried it this morning, only to find the babies are too big. I'm bummed. I thought I'd read and researched enough to get the timing right (between 8-10 days) however, it looks like I should have done it about 4 days ago. The chick I pulled out was so squirmy! My husband told me I was panicking so he took over ( his hands are more steady than mine), but once the band went over the first few toes, it was plain to see the baby was too large. No big deal really, I doubt I'll be wanting to sell them or anything; I just wanted to band them for other reasons. Overall, it didn't seem to bother the parents, they went back in right away (once I put the little one back) and all is good. I can always put split bands on in the event I get another bloodline and want to breed them. We'll just have to wait till the next time to do the closed banding.
Thanks again,
Heather

Nipper06 · Post by **Nipper06** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:51 am

My baby Green Singing Finch was also too big for the Size C band when I took him out to band him. Fortunately, I had some bands of the next size up, Size D, in anticipation of breeding my Gouldians.

So at the recommendation of the NFSS band person, I tried the D size and got it on - and it has stayed on. Apparently, you can go up one band size, if you have to, to get them on a larger fledgling.

Before banding (I had just given up trying to get the Size C band on):

The next day - after successfully banding him in the next larger band size (Size D):

As he looks now - the band is still on !!

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:33 am

Well done with the banding. He looks so sweet - I love the tufts on his head!!

trevorama · Post by **trevorama** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 11:39 am

I never thought of going up a size with the band. Never occured to me. It would have mattered anyway as I only bought "C" and"D" sizes (c for my stars and d for the goulds) Thanks for the tip though.
Heather

FINCHforum

closed banding gouldians

closed banding gouldians

Close-banding finches

If the baby finch is too big for the band