FINCHforum

I have a pair of gouldians together, they've never laid eggs because the blue female is to young, I want to add another blue female in with them for now, because she is currently all on her own. Will this cause any problems? They arn't breeding, there is no nest box.

Yes, should be fine, Gouldians are very sociable birds. Just watch out for sign of bullying though. This may happen if the male bonds with either of the females and then the couple will harass the 3rd one. This could easily happen and often breeders add another male when a couple don’t bond and as if by magic, with the introduction of another male the female takes to the old one. Not sure how this would work with two females but no harm in trying if you keep an eye on them regularly.

They may be some bickering initially which is normal when adding a new birds. Even peaceful birds may not like a stranger in such close proximity. I have found that taking the two established birds out of the cage, moving around perches and water/food containers (so effectively creating less of a familiar environment) then putting in the new bird and then adding the two old inhabitants makes things easier as the two old birds will be less territorial.

In the long term you probably want to find her a companion. If you are lucky enough to have babies you could keep one of the males. In time he would be able to mate with her.

They should get along fine together. Just a heads up though, many many years ago I had 2 hens and a male together while I was shopping around looking for another male, both hens went to nest. The male picked the mate he would help brood with and the other hen was left to raise the chicks on her own, which by the way she did very well. I'm just saying it can happen and especially for first time parents, it could be a disaster. I had nests in the cage because I didn't think they were ready to breed, which I probably should not have done.
Live and learn.

Soon as I put the hen in with them the male started attacking her, so I took him out and put him on his own, he'll just have to sit by himself until his partner is old enough to breed and I find a new gould for the odd female.

Neither of the females have their full colours yet, still a lot of grey on them, it seems that the breeder who sells me the gouldians only sells young blue females who don't have al their colours yet. I'm sure I read somewhere that a breeder shouldn't sell them until they're fully coloured, any truth in that?

Don't give up on them so quickly. Like I said there will be some bickering initially and finches hate being on their own so they will be much happier all together. Try putting the cages next to each other so they can get to know each other. There is no reason why your male wouldn't get on with both females if they are not breeding. Keep them like that for a week then try to introduce the male into the females' cage (not the other way round) and see how that goes.

I have heard several reasons why you shouldn't sell or buy uncolored gouldians. I think the most popular is because molting is such a stressful period that if they are stressed while molting some can not handle it and die. The other is that moving and stressing out the bird during molt may cause it to be stuck in molt, which means you have to wait till the next molt for it to fully color up.
I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of at the moment.

I can think of two more:

1 - gouldians are very delicate before they colour up (and stay quite fragile, compared to some other finches).

2 - you may not be happy with the colouring, especially if you are trying to breed specific lines.

However if they have been with you for a while and they seem happy and healthy and you are not fussed about head/chest colour then don't worry too much about these. Just make sure you buy fully coloured birds in the future.

AndreasLon wrote:I can think of two more:

1 - gouldians are very delicate before they colour up (and stay quite fragile, compared to some other finches).

2 - you may not be happy with the colouring, especially if you are trying to breed specific lines.

However if they have been with you for a while and they seem happy and healthy and you are not fussed about head/chest colour then don't worry too much about these. Just make sure you buy fully coloured birds in the future.

Neither are in top health really, both seem a bit ill, sleepy during the day, fluffed up a lot, the first one was ok for about 4 weeks, I don't know if it tried to breed with the male, but it suddenly became ill, and I found one bloody dropping around the same time. A few days later the other female started looking a bit down too, bit fluffed and sleepy during the day. I have other birds nearby who are fine, and the male who was with the first ill one is in perfect condition, he's practically show bird quality with his stature and vibrant colours.

Ouch bloody dropping = not good! Birds are like race cars, will only work when in perfect conditions. It could be that the stress of the move has weakened their immune system and they may be suffering with a bacterial infection. Some more people with more experience than me in avian health may be able to be of further assistance but your focus at this stage should move from accommodation to actually help these two young birds survive!

These two females have to be put in a hospital cage ASAP. Alteratively an infrared light be put next to their cage. What they need the most is heat, 30-32 Degree Celcius is ideal (don't know what that is in Farenheit). If you don't have either a large fish tank with a heat map can also work. Put some branches on the bottom for them to perch. If you need more info on any of these options give me shout.
Next you should observe how they are doing and keep a close eye on their dropping. Birds often get loose droppings when ill, but sometimes it can actually be an infection and require antibiotics.

It's very unlikely the hen will have attempted to mate as she's too young and not in breeding condition yet.
Like we said, gouldians before they colour up are even more delicate than adult gouldians. Tell us more about where you keep your birds, their diet and also how you transported them from the breeder. At this stage I'm trying to understand what could have caused the females to be unwell.

In any case, don't overestimate their strength, if they appear fluffed up and lethargic, with no extra heat they might die as ill birds can't keep their temperature high enough.

AndreasLon wrote:It's very unlikely the hen will have attempted to mate as she's too young and not in breeding condition yet.
Like we said, gouldians before they colour up are even more delicate than adult gouldians. Tell us more about where you keep your birds, their diet and also how you transported them from the breeder. At this stage I'm trying to understand what could have caused the females to be unwell.

In any case, don't overestimate their strength, if they appear fluffed up and lethargic, with no extra heat they might die as ill birds can't keep their temperature high enough.

They've had extra heat for a while, the room itself is constantly at 72-75 degrees from the electric oil heater in there. Their cage itself also has a infrared ceramic light next to it.

They were moved from the breeders in a cage with a sheet over it so they couldn't really see anything about what was going on.

I feed them a foreign finch mix, egg food, oyster shell, charcoal, mixed dried vegetables and their water has a supplement (avigold) which cleanses it and supplies extra minerals and vitamins.

It all sounds good. Your idea to keep the male separate is also good, so they don't get bothered by a healthy finch waking them all the time while recovering. One thing that I have found useful to avoid upset digestive systems is to take some of the seeds they are fed by the breeder and slowly mix the new ones to these over a week. Some probiotic powder to add to their water and vitamines will help too.

It all sounds good. Your idea to keep the male separate is also good, so they don't get bothered by a healthy finch waking them all the time while recovering. One thing that I have found useful to avoid upset digestive systems is to take some of the seeds they are fed by the breeder and slowly mix the new ones to these over a week. Some probiotic powder to add to their water and vitamines will help too.

Yeah they both get along, sleep next to each other etc. They look like twins except for 1 is several weeks older. The male is far to alert for them, he is in amazingly good health, when I got him from the breeder, the breeder said he didn't notice until after we got him out how nice that bird is, he wished he noticed before so he could remove it from his selling stock to keep for himself, i'd already bought the bird by then.

The sickest one was on baytril and since they're together now they both are on it. After 7 days of that i'll give them probiotics.

It sounds like you know exactly what you are doing. The girls will be fine

Any chance of seeing a photo of this beautiful male?