FINCHforum

This morning one of my gouldian eggs in the incubator hatched. I had hoped that a pair of my Bengalese would foster it but this hasn't worked out so I'll need to hand rear it.

Will it be OK to use an incubator as a brooder? The 2nd Incubator I have I can alter the temperature very easily and it has a compartment for water (humidity) at the moment it is in this 2nd incubator but I'm not sure if this will be OK long term. At the moment I have the temperature set at 93 degrees F. and I'm feeding the chick approx. every hour (when its crop is empty)

I should explain the gouldian eggs in the incubator were rescued when the adult birds had tossed the eggs out from the nest. I had tried replacing them into the nest but the same thing happened so I took a chance on the eggs hatching in the incubator.
Emmy

I would think that would be just fine, since you can control the temperature and also add humidity to the incubator. As long as there is also good ventilation, I would think it would work. Kudos to you for trying hand feeding, it is not easy.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find some articles on brooding and hand feeding babies. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on. We also love to see photos!

Thanks Sally for the reply the incubator does have fan so there is ventilation. In the past I have hand reared zebra finches, canaries, diamond dove and cockatiels but this is a first with a gouldian. The reason I cant use the other brooder I have is there's still some chicks in it and I had the incubator handy so just kept my fingers crossed it would be OK .
Emmy

If you have hand fed Zebras, you should be fine with Gouldians. Please keep us posted.

emmy185

Hi Emmy, and welcome to the Forum.
Congratulations on your brand new hatchling.

I want to wish you the best of luck with this infant and the egg babies as well.

You mention that your Societie Finches, didn't work out as Fosters.... You know, once your baby Gouldians start begging, you might want to try the Socies again. Sometimes when Societies hear begging babies, it triggers something in their brains to start feeding (especially if they have raised any babies in the past).

All the best, and keep us updated.

Welcome to the forum.
Here's the page about handfeeding that may be of some help, though you sound experienced in that area already. It also includes the temperatures of the brooder for each stage of development.
http://www.finchinfo.com/breeding/handfeeding.php
Best of luck

Many thanks to you all for your interest and replies to my post.
I fed it 4 times during the night as recommended and I used electrolyte (substitute for pedalyte) to mix the formula for the first day to prevent dehydration.

Things aren't looking good this morning though, it's not moving very much. Guess I'll just have to keep my fingers and toes crossed, but I'm not very hopeful. It's a worry when this happens.

Emmy

emmy185

Oh dear..... I hope he'll be ok. Poor little baby.

Sadly the lovely wee chick died - I feel so, so, sad about this happening.
Emmy

I'm so very sorry for your loss. I often feel that when hand fed babies fail to thrive, there was probably something wrong with them from the beginning.

emmy185

what electrolyte substitute did you use? Just checking in case another egg is about to hatch.

And so sorry the little one died. Always look on the bright side, you have an amazing and accurate egg incubator!

So sorry for your loss

Thanks everyone for the kind messages.

Babs the electrolyte I used was by Vetark professional the label says Avian Electrolytes -Electrolyte supplement for birds It said to use 2ml (4 pumps) per litre of drinking water. To mix the chicks first feeds I used 1 pump (1/2ml ) to 250ml of cooled boiled water and used that to mix the Kaytee hand rearing food (1food -6 of the water with the electrolyte mix) I had the electrolyte in the house as I had to use it before when hand rearing a baby cockatiel. I had tried to get the pedelyte before but couldn't find it available here and was told the Electrolyte could be used as a substitute. Be grateful for any advice regarding this.

emmy185

I'm not pro, but its Avian recommended then it should be just fine. I agree with Sally, something may have been wrong with the baby.

I'd love to know what kind of incubator you used. It did a great job. That is a handy thing to have for lots of people who have inexperienced parents of all species of finch that abandon their eggs. Incubating can be so tricky.

Hi Babs
This is a link to my new incubator this is the one I was using with the gouldian chick after it hatched. This incubator its so easy to alter temperature etc

http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/produ ... auto1.html

but the gouldian egg hatched out in my other incubator (this one - )

http://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/produ ... i-eco.html

which I have used for a long time now and I've lost count of the number of chicks that have hatched out successfully-- but with this one you have to turn the eggs manually. the eggs have mostly been Texan white quail and Chinese painted quail and a duckling too. but I'm now putting in the eggs some of the finches have tossed out from the nest.
This one is really good to have especially if I find ANY injured bird - it helps to revive them so they can then be treated and put into the hospital cage. I also have the ecoglow 20 which is a brooder and is good for the quail after they hatch. I'm not sure if I could use that with a gouldian chick though. Could have posted a photograph but still to work out how to do that yet (lol)