Blue-capped Cordon Bleu pair - separate when not breeding?

[a_gouldian]

We are going to be separating our female and male BBCB juveniles from this breeding season into two different flight cages in different rooms. Should we consider separating the adult male and female as well until next breeding season or is better to leave them together?

[Haider]

i would say separate them to give them break and prevent them from laying eggs.

[GouldianGuy]

+1

I agree, she needs a break. Sounds like she has been active! She'll need to replenish her calcium stores.

[lovezebs]

a_gouldian

This is the girl, who has had laid all the eggs, but didn't raise them, right?
Seeing as she just laid the eggs, but didn't raise the young, she should be fine, as long as she has enough Calcium and Vit D3, to help her absorb the Calcium.

I hate seperating bonded waxbill pairs, they tend to pine for each other.

Would not removing the nest be just as effective if you want her to stop laying?
Also cutting back slowly on high protein foods, and going into a seed oriented diet will resolve the issue, getting hormones back into non breeding mode, as well as going to natural day light hours, or even cutting back on those, will be helpful as well.

Personally, I would not seperate this pair.

[a_gouldian]

a_gouldian

This is the girl, who has had laid all the eggs, but didn't raise them, right?
Seeing as she just laid the eggs, but didn't raise the young, she should be fine, as long as she has enough Calcium and Vit D3, to help her absorb the Calcium.

I hate seperating bonded waxbill pairs, they tend to pine for each other.

Would not removing the nest be just as effective if you want her to stop laying?
Also cutting back slowly on high protein foods, and going into a seed oriented diet will resolve the issue, getting hormones back into non breeding mode, as well as going to natural day light hours, or even cutting back on those, will be helpful as well.

Personally, I would not seperate this pair.

That's what I was thinking because they seem so bonded. They do get Calcium and D. We just need to juggle things because we have the 10 Cordon Bleu juveniles that we will need to separate and that means the females will have to go into a different cage.

[a_gouldian]

Thanks for all the replies. We do separate our Gouldians but have had some bad results doing this with other species. When we did this with our Owl pair the female was really stressed out and then she became egg bound.

[lovezebs]

a_gouldian

I know that some strongly bonded pairs, don't do well when separated. These are very often couples that mate for life. When their mate suddenly disappears, they grieve, sometimes for prolonged periods of time.

If there isn't a major issue, I would recommend leaving them together.

The younglings on the other hand, can and should be seperated, before your boys start getting aggressive with one another because the girls are on the scene. They should get along fine, with the girls out of sight (we hope ).

[a_gouldian]

a_gouldian

I know that some strongly bonded pairs, don't do well when separated. These are very often couples that mate for life. When their mate suddenly disappears, they grieve, sometimes for prolonged periods of time.

If there isn't a major issue, I would recommend leaving them together.

The younglings on the other hand, can and should be seperated, before your boys start getting aggressive with one another because the girls are on the scene. They should get along fine, with the girls out of sight (we hope ).

Thanks Elana. We are going to leave them together. We will just have to do some juggling with the birds or else buy another cage.