Peales Parrot Finches

[josh1810]

Can anyone tell me anything about these RARE birds.

I have a friend that has been trying desperately to raise some. She had two pairs that are 2012 birds. I went to her house today to get a gouldian hen, and she said take them with you. I want you to try them and see if you have any better luck. Well I was kind of reluctant since she paid 500.00 for the pair. I said lord please don't let them die in my care. Anyways, I now have them in my care. I will start them on my breeding diet that I have my Gouldians on and hope for the best. Also maybe foster the eggs if we get any eggs.

Basically she is getting infertile eggs from the other pair, and I don't believe she has had this pair together long so I don't know if they have laid recently.

Any help would be awesome, because I basically find info on regular parrot finches. Are they past their prime of fertility? Or with proper nutrition and housing will they still reproduce for me?

[finchmix22]

I have two pair of Peales and they are very difficult to breed. They do better alone in a flight that is at least 6 feet wide. I've had each pair in their own five foot flight for a year now and nothing, nothing, nothing. I give them egged, FDBWs, seed veggies etc. Still nothing. The breeder they came from had them in outdoor flights and fed live food, so that may be the key. I'll try that this spring and see if they'll lay eggs this year. Good Luck with yours. If you try something that works, let me know. I'm new with the Peales, even though my RT and SG PFs raised several clutches successfully. The Peales seem to be different with regards to breeding.

[isobea]

Josh1810 and finchmix22
Hi Josh and Deborah, a friend of mine (who also lives in Carlsbad) has been raising them for at least a year or two. Right now he has them for sale for $325 a pair on craigslist (San Diego). Go to "pets", then "finch" or "finches". Nice guy, I'm sure he wouldn't mind a few questions. I personally know nothing about them - they are out of my price range. Good luck,
Iso

[monotwine]

They can be successfully raised and I know of some that do it in breeder cages.
One of their breeding triggers is figs. Apparently they love those.

Infertility can be from a load of things. Including age, condition (too fat), medication, mechanical damage (say missing toes to grip hen) or just a lad with poor aim.
Good luck breeding them.

[kcdozy]

I have had good luck raising them in a 30-40" breeder cage with one pair per cage. I give them 2 nest choices on the outside of the cage (ABBA half open small plastic nest boxes) along with long straight coconut fiber. I feed them a dry finch mix with added canary grass seed and Japanese millet, home made egg food with added veggies and germinated seed. If there is no egg laying within 2.5 months I will change up the pairs and offer the the hen a new mate, had one hen that would not lay until the 4th male that I offered her. I would say that 70% of the time they will start laying eggs within 5 weeks and once they start they don't stop. I find that peales have the longest breeding productivity of all parrot finches my best breeders are 4-5 years old and usually very good parents, as with other birds young pairs they are known for pitching their young. They are not nearly as flighty as other parrot finches and very seldom get over weight but I do limit their egg food intake to every other day and not to much. I had a friend who took 4-5 proven pairs that were in a cage one pair per cage and put them all in a large flight together and got no breeding at all. He then put them back into cages and they went right back to breeding.
Rich