FINCHforum

I'm a beginner and ended up (long story) with 2-3 month old gouldians.
They were 3 blue backs and 1 split to blue , all males.

I hope sharing my experience and mistakes may be helpful to others.

I didn't realize gouldian r not like society and should wait until after moulting before moving to new home.
Nor did I know that blue backs have a very high mortality rate before becoming adults.

I tried to read everything I could find online but except for hard to survive and delicate birds because of too much inbreeding to get blue color, couldn't find much on how to raise them.
I hadn't known anything about moulting and color chg.

The craigslist person I got them from was 1st time raising babies.

1 got very sleepy and puffy within a couple of days. Another was a bit sleepy within a week. Craigslist person said normal for moulting time.
But after couple weeks very sleep one definitely not looking well and very unhappy and just head tucked in alk the time.
Craigslist person accept him back, would have given me 1 in exchange only but I didn't want any more now I realized they were struggling and I didn't know what I was doing.

I got some expensive bird seed with egg food and some egg food which were the 2 things they would really eat, very finicky. I gave them added vitamins. This seemed to help.
I got some featherfast and switched them to this vitamin which seemed to make a big difference.
1 1/2 months and they were doing much better.

But the 2nd one that had been sleepy since the first week started getting really sleepy again during a cold snap and stormy weather.
All indoors with heat lamps during night. Unfortunately the heat lamp timer was bad and turned off the heat lamp during the night and my remote thermostat went haywire
And next morning I so sadly found him dead.

I week later the last blue back one started fallen from his perch and the split to green wasn't looking very well.

It was night time and I was desperate sure I would find at least the blue one dead and possibly both by the next morning.

I decided to just go for it and stop being careful.
I didn't feel I could do anything worse at this time.

I turned off all heat lamps (which I had now been keeping on round the clock because I didn't trust timers)
And I turned off their lights on there side of the cage to let them rest as much as the wanted, half of the room still had lights on timer.
I gave them Moulting food I got from Amazon, it contained salt and I had read salt was bad but I was certainly done worrying about that since I didn't expect them to be alive by morning.

I wiped down and sprayed vinegar ( at thim point it was more because I was afraid my society and canary in other cage could get sick from them.

Since the olive green split to blue gouldian didn't want the blue one near him and I was afraid he might hurt or kill the blue one I put a makeshift divider between them.

I left them that night very sad dreading the morning. The blue one had managed to get vack on a perch but had to lean against the bars to not fall.
I had set up a hospital cage for him but he got so upset when I tried to catch him that I felt I should let him die in peace in his own cage in his own way.

The next morning I went into the livingroom in dread. I found them both flying happily.
By afternoon the blue one had found his way to the other side of the divider and both were happy to be together again.

It has been 2 weeks now. I don't know if they will make it through the winter.

They seem to be about half the size or so of an adult. And they have some color on back but seem to still have a ways to go before fully chg color. It been now about 2 months since started moulting.

From an article I read blue backs especially need good sterilizing of environment.
The vinegar I use every few days especially if they start to look very sleepy.

I have some apple cider vinegar but I'm not sure if it is safe to put a drop or 2 in their drinking water?

It seems like your birds improved when the heat lamps were turned off. What kind did you use? I use a ceramic infrared heat emitter (zoo med) with the reflector dome I got from ladygouldianfinch.com. There is heat, but no light. It is not on a timer. I place it at one end of the cage, so they can use it if they want the heat, but can get to a cool place at the other end. I only use it if one seems cold. The apple cider vinegar is safe and was recommended by a very good avian vet. If you can, get Braggs unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar. But they may not drink the water. Mine would not even drink out of the same cup after I added some. If you try it, be sure they are drinking the water. I'm glad I decided on Societies and not Gouldians. I have heard that Gouldians do go through very hard molts and blues are hard to raise.

goldfinchowl

I'm confused.

You mention that they're 'indoors', but you're worried about stormy weather. If they're indoors, the stormy weather should not affect them.

Temperatures for these guys should be around 20c or warmer day and night.

Yes, Blues tend to be a little more delicate.

Yes, in future I would NOT buy unmolted birds. If stressed at that stage, they can get stuck in molt which can make them even more vulnerable to diseases.

There is all sorts of information about Gouldians on this forum. Please feel free to search it out.

wildbird - thank you, I will add a cup to be sure they r still drinking water. They r very finicky. If ur birds wouldn't drink mine likely won't but with an additional cup they can hive it a try if they r curious enough.
I was using ceramic heat lamps but I was also using central heating and the corner of the livingroom they r in gets both too cold and too hot when the heat is on. So it was too much heat. Guess it is netter to error oddly on the side of not to hot. But in November when I wasn't using central heating they did improve with the ceramic heaters.
While I love my gouldians I too feel it is best to stick to hardier birds like the society.

Lovezebs - how long before I know if they r stuck in moulting and wat can be done to get them through moult?
They r slowly changing color but definitely still a ways to go.


I did look up on this site about gouldian but most seemed about color breeding and also about regular greenbacks not the very delicate bluebacks.
Unfortunately the one post I found about moulting people adviced that there was no need for anything extra care which was definitely wrong for my birds since they Absolutely need the Moulting Food to give them strength during their growing and moulting stage. And vitamins r very important too.
I did read online that extra care needed when weather stormy/damp and they did react worse even tho they r inside.
I'm older and damp weather does affect me even when indoors.

I read one article that the fatality rate is very high for blue back babies and that one breeder regularly sterilized his aviary because ofh their weakened systems from too much inbreeding.

I found that the craigslist person I got them from recently sold almost all the adult birds they had and for less than they normally would go for.. They had a large outdoor aviary full. They seem to of only kept 2 pairs of gouldian and brought them indoors.
I'm thinking that their babies didn't do well either. The 2 that died were activing sick within a short time of arriving.
And the person had said that my babies were looking better than their were a couple weeks after I got them.

Picture

The more heat they get the quicker they molt. Blue / silver gouldians lack the ability to process mainly vitamin A for the food. That is why I give electrolytes once a week and also Red Cell (vitamins for horses).
The Red Cell is very strong and I give it at about 5 ml to 5 liters of water.

MariusStegmann - thank you
What temperature would you consider the max to help them moult faster?

I'm not familiar with electrolytes - where would I be able to get it online on a trustworthy place?
Also unfamiliar with Red Cell. Online? Would a feedstore carry it?
I live in USA

Since they r indoors and it is winter, should I add something for D vitamin?
If so what would be best?

I got from Amazon a Skin and Feathers vitamins that I add to their water daily.

Plus Quiko egg food, moulting food and Laferatte (?) Extra fine pellet food that includes egg food and ionized salt. I mix fresh daily for them.

I was giving them a pinch of Featherfast but switched to the water vitamins from Amazon because the Featherfast said no other vitamin enriched foods at the same time.

Closeup better pictures

The blue one some of his back underfeathers r starting to turn a light blue this week. They had been dark blue.

goldfinchowl I would say if the day temperatures hit 25 - 30 Celsius constantly, the birds colour up quickly. My birds are obviously outside in aviaries. In South Africa the petstores sell the redcell in small quantities. The shops that sell horsetack and saddles also sell Red Cell, but in larger quantities. I would not worry with the Red cell or Electrolytes if you are already giving vitamins.