blue gouldians easy to breed?

[dutch]

I found a breeder who breeds blue gouldians in outdoor avairies

I went out to his place..he has a number of breeding avairies..in them he has 5 pairs of blues breeding like zebra finches. ..no medication..no fosters...no heaters

Avairies are 6 m in length....half the avairy is all open wire ...roofs also open wire

The winds blowing on them and they are fine

He is charging $350 a bird

Are blue gouldians really weak?...from what I saw they are just like zebras

Does anyone here breed blue gouldians outdoors

[lovezebs]

dutch
Heya Dutch. If I bred Gouldians (blue or otherwise) here, I would have bird popsicles (birdsicles?)

Lucky fellow that one. Did you get some of his birds?

ETA for Scarlett?

I have babies today

Loooook!

~Elana

[Rox]

dutch Breeding them is easy, keeping them alive seems to be the main problem.

Here in SA we battle to find strong stock that will survive outside. Most people breed them indoors in flights and then they die quickly once moved outside. I know Monotwine is looking into giving blue gould's a chance but sourcing quality, outdoor bred stock is a problem. The safest (and cheapest) option is to get splits and breed blues out of the splits. It will take a lot longer to get your own blue lines going but at least you can keep track of the health and strength of your birds.

I was very tempted to get some blue's but spending that amount of money on a bird that might survive just didn't seem worth it. I might still try the split's one day though.

[monotwine]

Rox has the right of it. Here there are some that are succeeding with breeding blues & silvers outdoors, but they have dry environmental conditions. We are near the coast and birds tend to dislike our humidity.

However, some really dedicated breeders are trying and slowly getting it right to breed outdoor, hardy birds. The blues are much more susceptible to diseases and are much weaker than regular Gouldian. Well that is the story here anyhow for now. I hope those dedicated breeders soon have blues a plentiful!

Dutch if you find a breeder in your local area with great success I'd snap up a pair or two (blue to a split blue). Its worth the investment if they breed well for you.
BUT to make it worth your while you will have to breed and house them separately from your usual flock or the blues being diluted is just a bit of a waste.

[debbie276]

I don't have any more of a problem with Blues then the others. Though I have to say a friend of mine in Brisbane Australia can't find any blues that don't need a ton of pampering and still it's a crap shoot, he would never think about having them outdoors. I'm sure it's all about the location and how the breeders are breeding their stock.

good luck
keep us posted if you buy any

[dutch]

I think if I spent $700 on 2 birds my wife would kill me

So I'll buy a couple more greens and add them to my flock

Who knows maybe after this season a blue one might pop out

Some tips the breeder gave me
1. Do not foster or keep fosters. ...he says even if a society looks healthy ...its a disease carrier...stay away from them

2.sunlight..12 hrs a day

3.fresh air

4.room to exercise. ...nothing less than 5 m for a flight

5.worm them and treat for air sac mites. ....but stay clear of other medications....he said if you need to medicate sell the bird. ....all birds kept for breeding stock should be medication free at all times

[Rox]

Dutch, I have been following a similar route with my normal goulds. I now only deworm quarterly and give one treatment for cocci going into winter (our winters are very wet). Other than that, I've decided no meds. So far, all good!

[dutch]

Rox...have any of your normal Goulds ever had a blue or yellow chick?

My normal red heads had a few red heads. .orange heads ..black heads and 1 dilute chick...more yellow in the green than the rest

[Rox]

Dutch, a friend of Monotwines had a blue chick pop out of normal gouldian's, so it is possible.

I have greens and yellows mixed, so I do get dilutes in between. I also have all 3 head colors, so it's like a lucky packet when the chicks color up But the red head definitely dominates

[monotwine]

dutch yeah my friend got stock from me a few years ago and low and behold a blue popped out the nest. It died unfortunately, but now we know that original stock has split blues somewhere hidden in there.
If a red headed pair throw out orange and black heads then the male and female must be split to orange and the male must also be split to black (if I recall correctly, need to brush up on my genetics again)
RH/b/o headed cock
RH/o hen

All the black headed chicks will be hens.

[debbie276]

Rox...have any of your normal Goulds ever had a blue or yellow chick?

My normal red heads had a few red heads. .orange heads ..black heads and 1 dilute chick...more yellow in the green than the rest

A Normal will not give you a "dilute" (SF Pastel) or a Pastel (yellow)
If you are getting Pastel and/or SF Pastel from a normal pair your male has to be SF Pastel which means he has 1 pastel (yellow) gene.

[dutch]

debbie276...so that means my male that looks like a normsl redhead is a single factor male...is that correct?

I purchased a single factor male yesterday. ...he is green but looks like a yellow gouldian

[ppg5tu]

dutch I have to agree with Debbie about blues being the same difficulty as GB or YB. We currently have 8 blues, several split to blue GBs and YB and to be honest we probably have more issues with our GB parents being bad parents compared to our blue parents. This year already we had to GB pairs toss a total of 8 chicks while our split to blues and Blue parents have yet to toss any. Just getting them happy and figuring out what works best for your birds makes all the difference. We generally don't pamper our birds and they seem to be very hardy because of it.

[debbie276]

A SF Pastel male with a PB has a lighter green body then the normals and everywhere that is normally black will be a gray color. SF Pastel means it has 1 pastel (yellow) gene.

A SF Pastel male with a WB or LB will be visually yellow.

Not sure what you mean about a green looking like a yellow.

[dutch]

debbie276....yep the black parts are all Grey