Living Arrangements

[jlt1960]

Hi everyone! Ok, I've got a pair of Lady Gouldians who successfully had one clutch so far and those 4 fledglings are about six months old now and going through their first juvenile molt. There are 3 girls and one boy and they are together in one large flight cage. The mom and dad remain in a separate smaller cage and have just had another clutch and there are 2, maybe 3 babies that will be out of the nest in a couple weeks. I know to leave them with the mom and dad until they are eating on their own but must remove them to their own digs after that. Here is my question: Can I put the brand new fledglings with the six month old crowd and if so, how soon do I need to separate the one male so he does not start trying to breed with all his lady siblings? Can i mix and match - will they all get along? I plan to have the boys in one flight and the females in another once I know the sex of this newest clutch. Am I making this too complicated or is there a method to follow? I can't keep the males and females together as I would like to because they are all related. Any information would be most appreciated!

[Icearstorm]

jlt1960

Do you want to breed any of the offspring? If not, it's safe to keep the siblings all together so long as they don't have anywhere to nest. Without a nest, they shouldn't breed, and any eggs that are laid can be removed. Same-sex flights should work, though it might be more expensive than keeping them all together.

I've heard of all-juvenile flights, so a mix of young birds could work. I'm not experienced with juvenile gouldians, so I'll leave those questions to another member.

[paul-inAZ]

Mixing two generations of chicks has not caused me any trouble.
Separating sexes is not really necessary. These are not breeding machines like zebras or societies. Breeding can be controlled by feeding a basic seed diet and not providing nests. They come into breeding condition when the diet is enriched with greens and egg food.

[jlt1960]

Thank you both! I thought Lady Gouldians were not as prolific as the other finches but they have proven that theory wrong! If I remove the nest, the hen just lays the egg in the food dish!! I've owned the pair for less than a year now and they have had at least a half dozen clutches. I do not intend on letting them have another clutch after these babies fledge as they look like they are trying to molt. I'm glad there shouldn't be any problems if I add these newbies in with the juveniles...

[Icearstorm]

jlt1960

Have you tried switching out their food dish for a hopper feeder or tube feeder? The gravity feeders usually have smaller openings, so they should not be large enough to act as a nest. It took my birds several days to figure out how to use a gravity feeder, but I'm glad I switched them over to it, as they won't nest in their food any more.

Here's the hopper feeder I use:

image.jpeg (59.51 KiB) Viewed 1157 times

It works very well, and only needs restocking once every week or two. The only complaint I have is the roof, which isn't super easy to clean.