Healthy Gouldian chicks?

[hanabi]

I've just uploaded a video to YouTube of my first ever clutch of Gouldian chicks:

Four Gouldian chicks

I'm not sure how old these chicks are; I heard the chirping of one chick on the 16th and two chicks on the 17th. I checked the nest yesterday (20th) and found four chicks. The video was taken today (21st). I estimate the eldest chick was born around the 14th/15th maybe?? Being my first clutch I am not sure whether they appear healthy or not, so would someone mind taking a look at the video and giving me some feedback? They appear healthy to me, each with visible food in their crop, however I was expecting to see their crops a little more full.

Three appear to be slightly darker than the forth. Might they be blue backs? The father is a black head, purple breast, blue back cock and the mother is a black head, white breast, green back hen (who may be split to blue).

A black head, purple breast, blue back cock and a black head, white breast, green back hen (who may be split to blue).

Thanks in advance for any comments and advice.

Cheers from Japan.

Ross

[Sally]

They look healthy, but I agree, I would expect to see fuller crops. Gouldians usually stuff their babies to the point that they look like they are wearing Elizabethan collars. I would keep an eye on them, in case you need to supplement feed them.

[debbie276]

I also think they look a bit underfed but maybe it was close to feeding time again. I'd watch closely as Sally said in case you have to supplement.

Good luck

[lovezebs]

hanabi

Hi Ross.
Beautiful babies! Congratulations !!!

Keep an eye and see how often parents are going Into the nest, and if you hear the babies begging when parents are In there.

Make sure, you offer lots of spray millet and hard boiled eggs to the parents for feeding. Also, some greens, like spinch, kale, cucumbers, etc.

You say the oldest one hatched on the 16th, so that's six days old. Obviously the parents are feeding (seeing that chicks are still alive). Let's just hope that they are feeding enough.

If crops are still so small In another day or so, personally I would attempt a bit of supplemental feeding. The older the chicks are, the easier it is to successfully feed them (my experience).

Snap another quick picture tomorrow or the next day, and let's see how they're doing, and keep a close eye when you're home to see how often parents feed.

Best wishes from Canada and good luck.

[lovezebs]

hanabi

Here are a couple of pictures of my latest clutch (now fledglings), just to compare.

Group picture, is when the eldest was six days old (same age as yours today).

Single picture, is I think the eldest, at eight days old.

These kids are parent fed, so you can compare and see approximately the amount of food in the crop at about the same age.

[ac12]

It looks like you have 2 blue chicks (the ones with pink skin)
Congrats.

I would give them egg food, but if you have not been doing that, I would be hesitant about changing their diet in the middle of raising chicks. The parents may or may not take to the egg, and the chicks may or may not react to the change in diet.

I would just make sure that you have LOTS of food available in a WIDE dish/feed tray. If the dish is not wide enough, the birds will not push aside the layer of empty seed hulls to get to the whole seeds just below, and thus not eat enough. You could add a second feed dish/tray.

[hanabi]

Thanks for all the comments and advice guys. Here is the latest update:

Part 2

As you can see the crops on at least three of the chicks are much fuller today. The fourth chick is a little obscured from view but perhaps its crop is not as full as I'd like. Anyway, so far so good. I removed the remaining egg (undeveloped) in case it was distracting the hen from her feeding duty.

<<Make sure, you offer lots of spray millet and hard boiled eggs to the parents for feeding. Also, some greens, like spinch, kale, cucumbers, etc.>>

I have chickens here so fresh eggs are available most days, but none of my Gouldians will take to it, soft or dehydrated/powdered. However all my Gouldian pairs love a commercial brand of egg food called Witte Molen Eggfood. Here is a list of the smorgasbord they face each day:

Mixed finch seed, plus separate feeders for foxtail millet, rapeseed, Japanese millet, canary seed, common millet (Panicum miliaceium), charcoal, eggfood, cuttlefish bone, oyster shell. For greens they have either Japanese mustard spinach or bok choy (which they love). A weekly dose of vitamins in the water, replaced with daily ACV (apple cider vinegar) for pairs with chicks. Ample selection, I hope.

Cheers.

[hanabi]

It looks like you have 2 blue chicks (the ones with pink skin)

Two blue chicks? That sounds mighty fine to me. But they all look pink to me at the moment I thought the blues would be darker than the normals though; I'll have to rewire some synapses. I can see that one chick, second from the top, is a bit pinker than the others, so perhaps that is one of the blues(?)

Thanks.

[Gouldiandave]

Maybe the parents are filling their crops for the next feed

[lovezebs]

hanabi

Hi Ross.

Personally I would offer at least one supplemental feeding per day, starting with the smallest baby.

They still look a little underfed to me, and the one on the bottom appears to be quite tiny.

[debbie276]

Their crops do look more full this time. General rule of thumb is that the crops really shouldn't be bigger then the chicks head.
I would really try hard to get the birds to take hard boiled eggs. Eggs are so good nutritionally for vitamins and minerals it is well worth the effort. Try a little of the egg mashed with a fork with their favorite seeds sprinkled on top. It may take a week or two for them to try but so worth it.
good luck, looking forward to more updates

[hanabi]

I would really try hard to get the birds to take hard boiled eggs.

Debbie do you think the Witte Molen Eggfood I feed them is not a good-enough substitute for fresh eggfood? After the breeding season I do plan to try boiled eggs again, especially because they will be in a community environment where the "monkey see, monkey do" character of finches might encourage hesitant members of the flock.

Oh, and another question for all, when adding seed to boiled egg, do you add it crushed/ground or whole, and de-husked or not?

[hanabi]

Well a lot has happened in the past two days. Here is part 3 (chicks around 7 days old):

Part 3

The chicks appear to be reasonable well fed by the parents and there is a noticeable change in size since the previous day. I nudged the chicks so I could observe their mouth nodules to help determine their future back colour. Looks like there are two blue-back Gouldians (indicated by the white middle nodules), and two green-backs (as indicated by the yellow middle nodules). The green-backs will be split to blue thanks to the blue-back father. Spot on ac12!

[hanabi]

So we hit a bump in the road last night. I noticed the hen and cock sleeping outside the nest Did they abandon the clutch? The chicks were quite cold and looked a little dehydrated, but they had full crops at least, suggesting they had been fed well (but maybe could not digest the food because they were cold). I rescued them because I felt they would not make it to the morning (inside temps fall to about 23 C at night), and placed them in an incubator that currently houses abandoned eggs from another Gouldian pair (see other thread). Oops, that's not going to work; eggs at 37.5 C (99.5 F) but chicks need only 33C +-, so I hastily retrieved a warming pad and set it up for the chicks. I then hand-fed them, first with a little water to re-hydrate them, and then after they became more active I fed them with some watery Kaytee Exact hand feeding formula. Fed them again at 2am, then let them go through to the morning.

At 7am their crops were empty again (a good sign). I noticed the hen was back in the nest box, so I quickly returned the chicks to the nest; the hen understandably left the nest during this time. So will she return and feed the chicks or won't she? It took another hour but she finally entered the nest and immediately started feeding the chicks. The video you see here is after the morning feed:

Part 4 (day 8, 9am)

As you can see the crops are reasonably full so she and the cock are doing their job. I checked again at 2pm:

Part 5 (day 8, 2pm)

Seems to be nice full crops, so I can relax a little until tonight. Fingers crossed there is no abandonment this time.

Personally I would offer at least one supplemental feeding per day

@lovezebs, I was dragged kicking and screaming into that last night. At least I now have a tiny amount of experience in hand-feeding finches.

Thanks for all the advice and comments.

Cheers.

[debbie276]

Personally I think hard boiled eggs are much better then commercial eggfood. When adding the seed to egg just sprinkle their regular seed on the top so they can see it, no need to crushed/grind or de-husked their seed. The egg is best to add during breeding and molting. When they are resting you want to decrease the protein levels and not increase them.

Sounds like you had a successful night and handfeeding went well. You must have very tolerant parents to accept the chicks back.

best of luck