Getting a pair of Goldbreast!*Got 'em, PICS*

[dfcauley]

Congrats!!! I love these little birds. My pair is sitting on eggs now.....

[cindy]

Domenic, if you prefer not to use mealies...mine raised their young on pellets, seed veggies and dried and boiled egg.

[Domenic]

Thanks all! I did get very lucky with a nicely colored pair. Special ordering birds always makes me nervous because I don't get to see the pair in person when they are chosen. But these two are great, very healthy, very bonded, very colorful. Can't wait to add them to the aviary!

Cindy - thanks for the tips. I checked to make sure the cage was all secure last night. I hate mealworms, never used them and never want to. Breeding to me is a hobby first and foremost, so I try to get everyone to raise on eggfood. If I can't, oh well.

Now they are a little bit more relax around me. I hope I will get some chicks this fall or winter if I can teach them to eat mealworms.

I hope mine become a little less flighty in time. I often read about birds accepting mealworms once the begin to breed or once they need to feed chicks. This is probably the case with yours. Good luck with breeding them!

[Sally]

Congrats on getting the pair of GBs--they look great! They are such fun little things, you will really enjoy them.

[JohnBoy]

Dom, they are precious! GB's are one of my favorites.

[MLaRue]

Congrats! They are fun little birds

[CandoAviary]

Great to see such nice birds. I know what you mean by buying birds sight unseen...It is a little worrisome. But yours look great
At the fair in Tallahassee this weekend there was a fellow that had about 40 of them. I started to buy a few for some new bloodlines but decided against it. They were $25 each which wasn't bad but I decided I had plenty of genetic material to work with and didn't want to mess with quarentining anything....yes, I bought no birds this weekend
My goldbreast also raise chicks with dried eggfood and shreded boiled eggs. I have fed a dried insect eggfood like orlux, feast or bag of bugs and they will eat this also. But they raise them beautifully on boiled eggs...and it doesn't get much easier then that

[annague]

Such beautiful little birds -- they look about the size of my red-eared waxbills but sound much easier to breed.

I laughed when I read about how they get out between the bars -- my little red-eared waxbill does this constantly and I think he could still get out if he wanted but he chooses to stay inside with his little hen, so once you have them for a while then you probably won't have to worry about them getting out.

Thanks for sharing.

[Domenic]

My goldbreast also raise chicks with dried eggfood and shreded boiled eggs. I have fed a dried insect eggfood like orlux, feast or bag of bugs and they will eat this also. But they raise them beautifully on boiled eggs...and it doesn't get much easier then that

I'm glad to hear that! Once they are out of quarantine, the aviary has everything they will need to start a family.

And yes, I'm very happy with how these two look.

[diinin]

Awwwww, they are adorable. The GBs are my favorites. They are sooo tiny. I have 3/8" wiring on my flight cage.

Mine love mealies. My GBs are the only ones that are allowed to breed (hehe), and I would probably keep the babies, or at least some of them. They are so docile and sweet.

Does your male sing? I've only seen mine dance a couple times, and it was really funny looking, but I haven't heard much of a song. All their little noises sound like crickets to me.

[Domenic]

I've only had them for a few days, but so far I haven't heard any singing. They are very quiet, the make almost zero noise, but when they do it sounds like a little cricket/twinkling noise.

So far I am really enjoying watching them. They stay very close to eachother and do everything together. I also really like sexually dimorphic birds because I always like the way the female contrasts and balances the bright colors of the male, like in Gouldians, cordon bleus, zebras, purple grenadiers, fire finches, etc. I also like the guarantee of buying a real pair rather than two of the same sex (I'm still struggling with my owls and orange cheeks!)

I can't wait to get these two in the aviary and observe how they interact with all my different species (I'm also hoping some of the others will teach them what eggfood is). I read that they have tough personalities for such tiny birds.

[franny]

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I can't wait to get these two in the aviary and observe how they interact with all my different species (I'm also hoping some of the others will teach them what eggfood is). I read that they have tough personalities for such tiny birds.

Domenic,

My little goldbreasts were quite flighty when I first got them, but they did calm down eventually. For some reason though, my little hen still freaks out when I get too close to the cage if I'm wearing anything yellow! Since she's been with the society finch she's become more calm yet.

The gouldians have taught both of the others that I am nothing to be feared. They are the calmest of the 4. But there's nothing like watching that tiny little GB chase a big fat blue gouldian away from her "mate", the society hen!