Gouldians babies

[KarenB]

The babies are doing well, getting louder and louder. I know for sure that six hatched, but there are only five little heads now. I imagine I'll find a dried up body when I go to clean the nest.

[MiaCarter]

KarenB - Aw, sorry to hear about the baby.

But the others look great!
And your juveniles are so lovely! I love the last photo. So cute!

My gouldians finally have the uglies (it took a few months!) so I'll get to see their colors soon! Very exciting.

[KarenB]

Banding day for the newest little aliens.

[delray]

Congrats. They really do look like aliens.

[Jen]

Congrats on your pretty babies! I have some too.... 'tis the season!!!!

[KarenB]

What? A white chest, possible black head? Oh, it is so fun watching these guys color up!

[delray]

Great pictures KarenB . That must be really fun. When I gt older, gouldians are on my species list.

[KarenB]

I almost want to trade all my waxbills for Gouldians. Almost.

[Sam007]

Aliens are looking great.

[KarenB]

Looking at the weanies today, I swear I see orange on one of their faces near the eye. It looks orange compared to the other ones' red. I will be interested to see if it actually is a yellow head. That would mean that I would have one with a white chest that is red or black headed and a yellow head with purple chest. There is still one of the weanies who has not molted a feather on its head yet but has a couple of yellow belly feathers. He needs to hurry up and put out some color, because it's driving me crazy not knowing what he/she will be.

[lovezebs]

KarenB

Your Weanies, are looking great Karen. I hope you get a white breasted, yellow head youngsters, it's such a beautiful combination of colours.

My older weanies, are now starting on their molt , so I should know pretty soon what these kids will look like, but holy Jehosophat, I've got enough feathers all over the house to stuff a pillow.

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

KarenB - Weanies! Love it!
They're looking good!

I've got 4 weanies myself!
And I've finally determined gender!
2 girls, 2 boys, all 4 with white chests! (Kind of a bummer, as I was hoping for at least 1 purple!)
I've got 2 red heads, and 2 mysteries. They could be black or red.

I'll be curious to find out if you've got an orange/yellow head! That would be a lovely surprise!

Can you determine gender by the bellies?
My guys have a very noticeable differential on the bellies. The boys have a mustard yellow; the girls have a lemoney yellow, so just like mum and dad.

How old are your weanies??
Mine were born Sept 16-17, and they're just now coloring up! Super slow! I remember you said you were hoping for gouldian babies, but were still without them when my guys were born. So they must be at least a month or so behind my guys?

Edited to Add: Woah, wait a minute. Just looked at the first post in the thread and you said they were born on Jan 13th? Is that the same juveniles who are coloring up?!?!
If so, that's super speedy! (And boy am I jealous! LOL I've had to wait months!)

[Colt]

My juveniles have taken forever but it seems I've got all three head colors, and where the YH is coming from I have no idea. All mine seem to be PB but I'm getting GB, GB/BB, sfGB (GB/YB), and YB chicks so I'm pretty excited.

[KarenB]

MiaCarter
Had to go back and look at the dates. The oldest ones were hatched 11/27 and one on 12/4, all basically from the same clutch. I had already pulled the first eggs for fostering when Lady laid one more egg. I decided to put that one egg under other fosters since it came about a week later.

After that lone Gouldian fledged, I put it with its siblings, and they all wound up weaning at the same time. In fact, #5 was the first one to begin its molt, which I found very interesting.

Two have already started to sing, so I'm pegging them as male. Two I think are female because of the combination of red and black feathers coming in on the heads. And then the one who hasn't done anything yet, and it is my shy one. Not sure about the belly feathers, still early on.

The white breast will either have a black head or a red head. So far I've only seen black feathers on its head. Black head would be really lovely with the white breast I think.

This second clutch was hatched altogether on 1/13. Originally six of seven eggs hatched, but there are only five babies now. When I took them out for banding, the sixth one was no where to be found. Curious.

[Colt]

KarenB My goodness really? My kids were hatched out in May of 2014 and they are just now finishing up their adult molts. What supplements are you giving them? Perhaps I need to up my game...