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I have a friend whose pair of gouldians is constantly mating! This has been going on for weeks (at least 2 but maybe 3). The are in the nest constantly too but no eggs. She is feeding them well but they refuse to eat anything but the seed. No egg food, no greens, no millet, not the cuttle bone. I am unsure what to tell her except that the birds tend to know what they need for the time that they need it. I thought the hen can keep the semen for 16 days and use it when she needs it. I am unsure if this is what is going on. Is there a way to get them to eat the egg food and the calcium? She has tried commerical egg food and fresh egg.

Thanks

Gouldians can be picky. Mine will eat romaine, but won't eat other veggies. They will eat my eggfood, though (well, most of them will), which is made of smashed boiled egg mixed with a good quality dried eggfood. If no eggs then calcium isn't an immediate problem. How old are the birds, do you know?

as hilary said they can be picky.mine eat a dry a seed mix and a little sprouted seed daily, they like egg shell, no egg, thats it most are with other finches and ofored other treats, but are not interested.You have given your friend sound advice.sounds like the hens about to lay

canucky2, don't even get me started on Gouldians. Mine just refuse to produce a clutch and between my two pairs they had 5 unsuccessful attempts this last season. They do everything right IMO, build the perfect nest court eat well and sit religiously but no babies. All advise I can offer is to be patient and try and control all the factors we are in control of, like proper housing and nesting, balanced diet, plenty of good nesting material, correct temperature, correct location of cage ect. The rest is really up to them. Good luck and keep us posted.

well luck was in her favor and she looked today and there are two eggs! I hope it goes well for her.

That was quick - seems like they were just waiting for you to post the question on here!

Have I ever told you about my Gouldians that have laid 3 infertiled clutches so far...? (hoping this will stimulate MY Gouldians to lay FERTILE eggs)

her mama hen is sitting tight on her eggs, papa is helping out too. Hope it goes well for her

canucky2 wrote:her mama hen is sitting tight on her eggs, papa is helping out too. Hope it goes well for her

Gotta love it when all goes according to plan. Good luck to her.

I candled the eggs for her a few days ago and it looks to 3 out of the 5 that are good. She's very excited. THey should be ready next tuesday

Hi everyone--I'm "the friend" with the constantly mating gouldians. The clutch was due to hatch on Wednesday and today I found half of an egg on the bottom of the cage. It looked like it had an underdeveloped baby which my friend said is referred to as "dead in shell". My question is this-does this mean that all my eggs are going to be "dead in shell"? Also--what are the common causes of this? I just want to be sure I didn't do anything wrong as they are my first clutch (but not the Gouldians). Thanks for your help.

Not all the eggs could have died during incubation.
Embryo death predominately occurs at two periods during incubation:
within the first 3 days of incubation and within the last 3 days immediately before a hatch.
The eggs may have chilled at some point and died. Fertile live eggs should have a porcelain look to them. Sometimes they look brown with streaks if the embyro died. After several clutches, you should be able to spot them quickly.

Aw sorry about the one lost egg. Hopefully some of the remainder will hatch for you.

BTW - Hi and welcome to the Finch Forum, Scully!