Question about Gouldians and moulting

[Nipper06]

I've noticed that some of my Gouldians become semi-flightless while moulting. In other words, they lose enough flight feathers that they cannot fly for a couple weeks. Is this normal? If so, it must be something they do in captivity but not in the wild. I can't imagine any wild finch being flightless for any length of time and surviving.

If it's NOT normal, could the be fighting or something, so that they are pulling out each other's wing feathers? I've never seen them fight before.

[Ian]

Definitely not normal? Your absolutely right, this bird would not last long in the wild. I have read that they can undergo a compressed moult if they are stressed environmentally. perhaps it is an adaption to domestic life (no predation).

[debbie276]

Not sure that this is a adaptation to being domesticated, none of my gouldians have ever lost the ability to fly during their molts.

[Ian]

Not sure that this is a adaptation to being domesticated, none of my gouldians have ever lost the ability to fly during their molts.

Adaption meaning that a bird that would have usually been killed off (like a colour mutation) has been able to continue to breed and thus pass an undesirable gentic trait on (possibly like becoming semi flightless during moutling). Lots of undesirable traits are being passed on in our domestic species by breeders who are most certainly not as selective as others.

I have also never heard of this occuring during a moult either though until now.

[Ursula]

It didn't happen to my gouldians but to my European goldfinch once... He had such a bad molt that he lost all his wing feathers and couldn't fly. He was fine afterwards and in the next molt didn't have that problem at all... There was no unusual stress or anything else different at that time either. Not sure why that can happen, but my guess is also that it's because they are cage bred for generations.

[Nipper06]

Thanks for all the replies. At the time this flightless moulting happened, I had 3 pairs of Red Headed Gouldians in the same cage. Could it be they were stressed out? Or even fighting? But I never witnessed any aggression. The cage was pretty big but I've read that Red Headed Gouldian males have the most stress in close contact with other males (see article).

http://www.savethegouldian.org/articles ... dheads.pdf

My 6 Gouldians were all in this cage (without the nest box). I thought they might enjoy being together for the non-breeding season. I have since split them up with each pair in a cage like this to themselves, in preparation for breeding this summer. All are flying again too.