gouldians and mealworm

[ruler]

hi, is it safe to feed live mealworm to gouldians? my sisters boyfriend recently bought a pair and today the female has died. they were both in an aviary with zebs, societys and most of them were breeding. the gouldians seemed fine this morning.
he said he threw in a few live mealworm for the quails at the bottom.
the male gouldian seems to be sat next to the dead female gouldian with its head tucked into the back of its neck sleeping and seems pretty slow to respond, we cant work out what is wrong and thought it might be the mealworm?

when i visited him yesterday they seemed to be shivering a bit with feathers ruffled up, to me they looked a bit too cold. any tips would be welcomed. thanks

[ac12]

Separate it and put an incadescent lamp on his cage, so he can warm up if he needs the heat.

[ruler]

he took the male indoors and put him in a porta cage with a 100watt light on him (i think its too bright personally) to warm him up. he said he is starting to move about a bit pecking for seeds so i guess he must have been cold.

are live mealworms ok for gouldians? also how do we know if its too cold outside for them? i keep mine indoors where they are cosy n warm thank god but its a shame to lose such a nice bird, my sisters boyfriend is devistated but i did keep telling him they looked too cold but said nooooo they are fine

[MLaRue]

Mealworms should not harm your Gouldians and most will not eat them as they are mainly a seed eater - some Gouldians will eat them but certainly not the Wabill species.

I think it is just coincidence - I feel the hen passed for other reasons and the male is probably sick with what the hen had.

Can you tell us more about his setup - like where is this aviary? What part of the world?

Without knowing symptoms prior to her death or husbandry practices now, there is just a multitude of possibilities that might be the problem. But I don't think eating the mealworm is what killed her - unless they are full of bacteria or infected with something that is detrimental to the birds.

[ruler]

hi, we live in the south of the UK and bought the birds about 2 weeks ago from a bird fair local to us. i myself bought 2 gouldians from the very same breeder at the same time but mine are doing fine.
my sisters boyfriend has a 8ft by 3ft aviary and about 7ft high. all the other birds seem happy and have all nested with some having newly hatched chicks.

when we bought the birds and brought them home he put them strait into the aviary even though i said to keep them seperate for a couple of weeks but they seemed ok in there. earlier they seemed normal but the other day i did notice them shivering with their feathers ruffled up as though they were a bit cold.

he has 4 quails and about 4 societys and about8 - 10 zebs. thats all he had in there but i hadnt seen much bickering in there towards the gouldians at all.

the weather today was a bit chilly, some sun and cloud, no rain. their general health looked ok but the female did have a funny toe but nothing more that we noticed unusual.

[ac12]

100 watts is too much
I would put 40 or 60 watts and put the lamp on one end of a perch. That way he can adjust how much heat he wants by moving closer or farther away from the lamp.

[simon]

the cock bird is doin great now,ive noticed 1 of my zebs is now looking a bit ill im wondering if the hen had a disease which she has passed on to my other birds she was very skinny when i got her and she had a bad toe.lesson learned about auctions

[simon]

i have just read some other forums and found 1 very interesting,it says his finch has green stuff in the middle of a liquid poo same as my gouldian due to liver problems aparently

[ruler]

yup he changed the buld from a 10 watt to a 40 watt for a few hours and then he perked up a lot. simon is the one who was having the problem but i took his male gouldian home so he could be with others of the same kind, just hope he makes a full recovery.

the weather has begun to turn very cold here and we did notice a lot of the birds had started to huddle up shivering, most were trying to sleep and didnt look too great so we covered the whole of the front aviary with polithene to keep the wind out and hope to retain some of the heat in. they looked a lot better a few hours later but at least we now know its not the birds diet causing the problem.

[Piciorusm]

My gouldian finches don't eat mealworms! But they do play with them a lot! They do quite a mess, but i still hope they will someday learn to consume them...

[monotwine]

Its one of those hard lessons finch keepers learn. I did too. I quarantine and watch new birds for minimum of 3 weeks before releasing them into an aviary, though these days I take 4-5weeks.

Did the seller of you Gouldians indicate how he bred them. IF they were bred soft, heated room etc then it would only follow that they could get ill when exposed to temperature drops. Perhaps they were not ill, but something in the outdoor aviary (which the resident birds are immune to, could have infected the new purchases. It could be many things.

Watch the occupants of the aviary closely to make sure they have not contracted something from the Gouldian.
If the remaining Gouldian appears healthy I would watch it and treat it as if it were in quarantine (without meds necessarily), until you know it was healthy.
2 weeks is about the right time after purchase for any stress related / hidden problems to arise.
It could just be the cold weather too, coincidentally and nothing health wise is wrong with any of the birds.

[ruler]

thanks some great advice there, its much appreciated. i have lent him a large reptile heat mat so the birds have something warm to sit on until her has time to build a heated shed for them as winter appears to be creeping in fast this year. the other gouldian i have put in a cage with my two other gouldians, he seems to be fine. he eats well and sings well. he even responds everytime i whistle lightly at him. i figure he is still missing his mate (just a feeling i have) but otherwise he seems like he was before.

we are hoping for the best for the little guy, its a real shame to lose a bird of such beauty.