FINCHforum

Out of my 3 male gouldians, why does 1 of them have long, straight, graceful wires, 1 have cock-eyed, crimped-in-a-door wires, and 1 have NO tail wires at all? They're all in the same cage eating the same diet.

Hi mate,

Gouldians tail wire's are actually quite delicate and can easily get knocked or more commonly pulled out by other birds,

It seems that one bird has damaged and bent the wire's and the other bird has simply lost em,

They should grow back at a latter stage,

Normally when a bird loses a feather it takes about 6 - 8 weeks to grow back, if these feathers have been damaged or lost long before you'll probably have to wait until the birds all moult

Just wanted to add, during breeding they can be bent, twisted and damaged from sitting in the nest especially in smaller nestboxes.

In my limited experience my cock birds have all had different lengths and some I have mistaken for hems as they haven't had long tails at all. To be honest, possibly people have been breeding for colour that tails may have been forgotten about.