Fostering society finches under gouldians

[Icearstorm]

Not something I'm going to do now, but an idea for the future.

My female gouldian may have genetic issues, and therefore shouldn't breed again. The chick she fledged had slip toe and intellectual problems, likely dying because it couldn't figure out how to drink. However, the female was a great parent to it, and fed it for over a month after it fledged.

It would be useful if all of the juvenile society finches matured simultaneously so I could choose which ones I wanted to keep in one go. For this, they would have to be around the same age, which would be possible if I fostered a couple clutches under other birds and let the original pair of societies raise their own, as well.

If the gouldians foster an entire clutch, than the society finches should recognize their clutchmates as the same species, avoiding some problems related to imprinting. So could this work, in theory?

[Babs _Owner]

Icearstorm

I would think it would since your gouldian hen seems to be a doting mother. As long as she believes she has laid and hatched them herself.

[Icearstorm]

Babs

That's good to hear. She lays eggs whenever she has a nest and doesn't have much of an issue with people looking in the nest box, so swapping her eggs out for societies' shouldn't be a problem.