Gouldian babies

[Dbearden]

I recently lost a fledgling who was out and about and walking on the aviary floor -- not flying yet, but doing well. Found it dead and not sure why.
Now I have two new hatchlings and possibly two more to hatch. Wondering if these should remain in the aviary once they fledge, or move to a separate cage to protect from others. I have a large aviary 7'x10' that house Goldbreasted, Star, Red Billed, Red Cheek Cordeon Blue and a lone male Gouldian along with mom and dad Gouldian. I am determined these babies survive!! Give me your thoughts and expertise, please, as I am new to the finches

[lem2bert]

Dbearden

Just a thought.....do they have places on the bottom of the aviary to keep warm ? Were the parents going to the bottom to feed it ? Where you live is it warm or getting cold ? I am certainly not an expert but just something to think about, hopefully someone with more experience with this sort of thing will have more information for you. I am so sorry you lost your Gouldinan baby

[Dbearden]

Thank you for your reply. I live in the Houston area and not cold at all. Yes, mom and dad kept an eye on them and it was starting to eat seed off the floor. We feel it was pecked......

[lovezebs]

Dbearden

Sorry to hear about your chick.

You can't remove chicks when they fledge, because the parents need to continue feeding them untill they wean.

The species you have in your flight are generally very peaceful birds, so I would be very surprised if any of them would peck a chick to death. It is possible however that the chick died and the parents were trying to poke at it to get it to move.

How long was your chick out of the nest? If they're old enough to fledge, they are usually flying the first or second day out of the nest. I wonder if this little guy was too young to fledge....

[Dbearden]

Elana,
Yes, I made sure the birds I decided on were able to co-habitate peacefully. However, my Goldbreasted male did peck his baby that fledged -- and it also died, which surprised me cause both parents had been feeding. They now have another clutch.

As far the Gouldian baby, it was out of the nest two days, and found dead early on the third day. I had put it back in the nest the first day and it again came out. Prior to the third day, it would walk around and go behind a planter, but did not fly. Maybe was too young to be out. The nest box is up about five feet off the floor and have wondered if it should be lower for the babies to be able to return.
Thanks,
Deana

[lovezebs]

Dbearden

Hi Deana,

It sounds like he may have been too young to be out of the nest.
I had one of those not too long ago, kept popping out of the nest too early, with me putting him back with his siblings, and him popping out again .

Were the parents actively feeding this baby?
Two days out of the nest and being too young, they should have been feeding him quite often.

Here is a time line of Gouldian development:

As you can see, babies don't fledge untill around 20 to 23 days of age, baby fledglings don't wean untill around 6 weeks of age. Until that point the parents feed regularly, slowly cutting down on the feeding towards the 6 week mark. By around 5 weeks, you should be seeing the babies starting to sample soft foods, such as hard boiled eggs, chopped greens, spray millet, etc. They should also be starting to drink on their own.

They should not be removed from the parents until they are eating and drinking 100% on their own, and the parents have stopped feeding them.