gouldians and cockatiels

dan3042 · Post by **dan3042** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:45 am

hi,
i hav recently bought a new large cage(74Lx54Wx90T)(centimetres) and 4 gouldian finches(1 blackhead hen, 1redhead hen and 2redhead males). i hav put them in the cage with a small cardboardbox(i will be buying the plywood ones when i find decent quality ones(prob tomorrow). i hav had 2 cockatiels for about 3years and they hav bred many times in the smaller cage they came from but they didnt hatch the eggs because they were laid on the ground and there was no box for them in there. i hav now added the cockatiels into the gouldians larger cage and will be gettin boxes for the gouldiand and the tiels asap. will they get along and breed happily? i hav seen no attacking or chasing but the gouldians did feel a lil insecure at the begining but now they hav calmed right down. i think they would be fine.
how do i get the cockatiels to breed?
how do i get the gouldians to breed?
arte there any tricks or tips i should know about both?

thanx
dan

Post by **Sally** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:59 am

I don't know anything about cockatiels, but I understand that hookbills and finches should never be mixed iin the same cage/aviary. The hookbills can bite off the toes or feet of the finches. As far as breeding Gouldians, there is a lot of information at the Finch Information Center under species, also under breeding.

chrischris · Post by **chrischris** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:20 pm

YIKES... I don't like the sounds of what you are doing.

I feel it's going to be disasterous in the long run. The gould will certainly get stressed out and if they do breed I could see the cockatiels attacking the gould in the nest or just destroying everything in there.

Don't Don't Do it....

Chris

Post by **Sally** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:33 pm

Omigosh! I just went to a site that converts centimeters to inches, and your 74x54x90cm cage in inches is about 29 long x 21 deep x 35 high. This is definitely not large enough for those six birds, even if you could mix cockatiels and Gouldians. That cage would work for the four Gouldians, or it is a good size cage for just the pair of cockatiels. My neighbors have one cockatiel, and they keep him in a cage about that size. My single flight cage is a little bigger than that, and I would keep 4-6 finches in that, depending on the species.

lyderbug · Post by **lyderbug** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:26 pm

Very bad!!! Move them quick. You're asking for a problem. You def need a bigger cage for that many birds; a significantly bigger cage.

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:45 am

I have to agree the cage is NOT large enough,

Now as for the tiels, I own and raised tiels and I gotta say have you EVER BEEN BITTEN ??????????????

If you have then you know how hard a tiel can and will bite.
and even though they SEEM to be getting along it only takes 1 SECOND for a tiel to be moody and snap at those goulds doing serious harm or death.

2 of my tiels have lived together NOT breeding for 6 years and STILL have fights. just like us they can have BAD DAYS< get them OUT of that cage.......

Ravyn · Post by **Ravyn** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:30 pm

I also have to agree. I have two tiels and I would never house them with my finches. Ever. Though they are sweet, handtamed and affectionate birds, if they ever got grumpy it would take just a single warning nip to have an unlucky finch's leg off.

lonchura_boi · Post by **lonchura_boi** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:34 pm

cockatiels and gouldians can mix, but only in a larger space. the space you have your birds in is waaay to small to mix the species and too small to breed your cockatiels. if you wish to keep the two species together you need a large aviary.