Normal female GS breeding behavior?

[PrettyBird]

OK so the the last few weeks the GS have been really getting into breeding. The male has been busy with the nest, constantly grabbing new material and putting it in. I have seen them mate once or twice.

Today I heard them making that "mating" noise. lots of peep peep peeps, and him standing upright chasing her and vice versa. After that he tried to mount her...and lost balance again.

I then saw Lucy grab nesting material in her mouth, sit on the perch, hold in with one of her feet, and proceed to sort of thin out the material. once it was to her liking she put it in her mouth, and made peeping sounds. The male jumped beside her and did his mating ritual thing as I said above. I saw her moving back and forth on the perch and turning..as if trying to get his attention. And he tried to mount again. I saw her looking as if she wanted to put the material in the nest, but as soon as she was about to jump up she dropped it.

Im wondering if this is a normal behavior for females? Do they put nesting material in their mouths and make those sounds to lure the male? Im still new at them, so this is a first Ive seen!

[traceyincanada]

I don't know what's normal because I'm new at this too but my female (and male) have been flying around the cage with the nesting material in their mouths for over a week.

They chirp with it in their mouths and I've even seen them go to the food dish with it in their mouths. I don't know if they're actually eating with it there but they seem to have their mouths full with it most of the time.

They bring it to the nest then take it out of the nest. They don't seem to know what to do with it but they love to fly around with it. They often look like they have white moustaches because it sort of hangs down on the sides like a handlebar moustache.

I've seen mine mate several times a day for several days in a row but with no proper nest I'm not hopeful that anything will come of it.

[kathmcm]

Your GS pairs are way ahead of mine! My hen just seems driven to tear apart anything that she can get hold of. She grabs hold of a wicker plant holder and tries with every ounce of her strength to pull off a piece. I've given them some things that they can get hold of and build with, but she only hauls her bit of stuff back to their favorite perch, chews on it a bit, and then watches it fall to the cage floor. The male prefers to try to steal from her, rather than get his own.

Sometimes I think my GS pair was raised by wolves.

[PrettyBird]

tracy- mine do this as well. Today I saw Lucy with more nesting material, and has actually made it to the nest and was placing some in. She used to do what yours did, she would always toss it out. But havent seen her doing it anymore. Maybe an egg will be coming soon.

They are constantly chasing eachother and making those peeps to mate. The male always looses his balance on her tho hopefully he will figure it out..or maybe he has done, when I have been out in the day.


kathmcm-aww. I have tried every nesting material I could think of. I also tried putting some cut up pieces of that natural raffia. She seems to prefer this idk why! lol. I still put a variety of different material in the cage and let them pick and choose what they want. How are yours doing? any sign of them wanting to mate?

[kathmcm]

No signs yet - I don't think they have figured out yet why there are boy finches and girl finches

I still play gs/canary songs from youtube for them occasionally in hopes the male will learn to sing. They also seem to like it when I'm playing music. I read that in nature GS live in flocks, so the music might give them the sense of being within a group. Their taste in music is kind of indiscriminate though.

[traceyincanada]

Kathy, that's funny because mine seem to like hearing music as well.

I've also played the Youtube videos of other males singing but only my female reacts to it. She starts peeping at the top of her lungs and flying around the cage frantically trying to find her true love, all the while the male sits on his perch in silence.

I have seen them mate though, many times actually. He kind of sings when he's on her back but of course the whole affair only lasts about 3 notes.

When he's not on her back, he makes those sqeeky wheel sounds but recently he's actually started chirp as well so that's exciting.

Tonight I bought them that coconut fibre stuff hoping that will get them to build a nest. They sure seem to love it. They haven't stopped pecking at it since it went in the cage.