FINCHforum

Over the past year or so, I've had 3 different pairs of Gouldians hatch and raise about 5 or 6 silver chicks - right through to weaning with no problem. Last year the chicks even got beyond being weaned but died between 2-4 months of age.

The latest clutch in May of this year had two silver chicks (siblings). They did well begging and then munching on millet spray and eggfood and eventually the seedhopper. Then as time gets closer to being fully weaned they went light one after the other while their split to blue, blue or pastel siblings did fine.

I'm getting tired of having the excitment of silver chicks only to end up losing them in a few months. Any ideas on what can be done??? I'm at a total loss on this.

I don't have an explanation for you but I can tell you that this is precisely what my problem earlier this year was with every single genetic blue I produced.

I had four pairs involved in the losses, but there were genetic links between all of them.

I had a single pair produce somewhere between 8-10 blue hens and I lost every single one except maybe ONE, which was given to a friend of mine in NJ. This thread actually reminded me to email her and see if she ever molted and if she's doing well.

I lost all four silvers I produced between two different pairs, and out of the 6-8 pastels (1 from one pair, the rest from a second) I only have two left.
One has finished molting and seems to be healthy, and the other appears healthy as well and is currently molting.

I have to believe it was something genetic with the four pairs in question that produced these birds.
With the Silvers I lost - it was a Brother/Sister combo I had purchased in 2009 paired to birds of my own, one of which, Saki, had produced 6 enormous healthy Silvers in 09 so I know the issue can't be with her.. and since his sister was paired to Saki's son and I lost THOSE silvers, too, I have to think there was something wonky in the purchased line of birds.

With the other two pairs, Bella and Mystic and Rachel and Astley..
Rachel and Mystic came from the same breeder in Texas, and I had nothing but problems with the offspring from both pairs. And it didn't matter WHO raised the offspring, because I tried everything under the freakin sun to try to get these babies to survive:
1. My friend Carol had her societies raise four babies in her home from EGGs, the only blue produced died before molting.
2. I had two other PROVEN pairs incubate and raise babies, in one case, along side their OWN eggs - the eggs from Rachel/Astley, I lost two out of the four offspring but all of the original parents babies were fine
3. I had MY societies raise babies and still lost all of the blues or silvers

It doesn't make any sense unless the birds are just genetically weak.
If it was disease related, why wouldn't other pairs be having similar problems?

Cut to this fall - I paired together one of the surviving Dilute/Blue males from Bella and Mystic with a Normal/Blue hen from an unrelated pair.
I have two blues, a pastel and a silver from them so far and SO FAR I haven't lost anyone.
At this point in the game before, they typically would have died already (like with you, shortly after or even before weaning). They would just start to fail to thrive and die.

I wish I had some answers - but I wonder if you selected different mates if you might be more successful.
I will say in the case of Bella/Mystic, literally all of the birds I lost were predominantly female, and this was a RH hen x BH male pairing, which according to Dr. Prykes research is incompatible and results in high female mortality....

Thanks Tiffany for that insight. I didn't realize anyone else was having a similar dilemma.

I don't think my case is genealogy related since none of the parents are related to each other in any way at all and I thought I had strong birds (I want to say bloodlines, but how does one know?). But I will try pairing them up to different mates this season - actually I have some of them paired now to different partners. Hopefully things turn out better this season for any/all silver chicks.

Does this mean trying to mate a BH-WB-GB/BB to a RH-WB-GB/BB is a bad idea because of the RH and BH?

ac12 wrote:Does this mean trying to mate a BH-WB-GB/BB to a RH-WB-GB/BB is a bad idea because of the RH and BH?

According to the research, yes..
http://www.gouldiansgalore.net/Color_Courtship

Sorry for your losses . How frustrating is that Hope you can get it figured out...I can't offer much insight but I would think that it is something genetic for sure since the other colored siblings fare well.

I just want to put in that the birds I got from the same breeder in Texas all their "blue" babies survived. Same genetics or from the same. But when pairing my birds I do try to put like colored head with like colored head for my own reasons but if they get to choose the BH female is always picked first and she will usually pick any color not always a RH.

I swear you did lose some blues from that line as well, though?

nixity wrote:I swear you did lose some blues from that line as well, though?

No, not that I recall. At least nothing compared to what you and Liz have lost. I did loose a blue baby just out of the nest but it was not from those lines it was a random egg given to the Socs. I still don't know why that happened - gorgeous baby too.

I have 5 plus "blues" from those lines that are all doing fine today. My first Blue I've ever lost was Yahto and then it was that blue baby mentioned above but no others that I recall at the moment.

That's probably the one I'm thinking of :/
The one with the Socs.. but I thought it was two or three, not just one..

nixity wrote:That's probably the one I'm thinking of :/
The one with the Socs.. but I thought it was two or three, not just one..

No only that one - I've lost babies but not blues he was the first. But really when I loose them it is usually the first few days after hatching because of parenting problems.

Sorry didn't mean for us to hijack the post.

I think if they survive for 3-4 months and then die it is not the genetics that causes the problem.
Have you considered the possibility of Coccidiosis? Treat your birds and I am sure things will change. The immune systems of the young birds are usually not so well developed and they die.

Just my 2c.

In my case I did treat for it despite not being able to find any evidence of cocci in the fecal smears, and it didn't help.

I also tried treating for other protozoal infectons, E.coli/Salmonella, Strep/Staph.. etc.
Nothing helped/worked.

The juveniles would be visibly fine up until a singular point where they would suddenly go downhill and just crash and die within about 48 hrs of showing signs of going off.