For everyone that's been following my gouldian breeding drama you'll be familiar with the set-up. If not, the short of the matter is this.I had a pair of societies and a pair of goulds who bred roughly around the same time, and accidentally (my oops). The societies laid two eggs, one hatched and grew into a beautiful little chocolate pied I call Baby. The goulds laid seven eggs, all of which hatched, but in a week Mama started pitching the chicks. So I moved the goulds out and into a flight cage and put the chicks under the societies.
Through a series of events, all but two of the chicks died. The two remaining chicks, Trooper and Jaws, are still alive. Baby, who became a moocher, was moved into his own cage and recently into the flight cage.
Okay, now for the update and my questions.
Update: Jaws, eating and drinking on his own and flying all over like a veteran, started picking on Trooper, who still seemed behind. I moved jaws into the hospital cage where he's been doing fine on his own. Next week I plan to move him into the flight cage.
Last night I took the bird bath out of the flight cage to give it a good scrub. Baby (who loves the bath, like most societies), went and sat on its stand in confusion as if he couldn't understand why the bath was gone. Then he started to make a strange noise. I turned off the water and went over and listened closely. Given his attitude I quickly realized what was happening. He was trying to sing! Though clearly out of practice and out of key. Given that he's in with a pair of goulds and no dominant society male this makes me about 99% sure that Baby is a boy.
Trooper, however, has been a source of concern. When I moved Jaws out of the breeding cage I noticed that Trooper didn't seem to be continuing to develop his feathers. She (I'm fairly sure she's a she) looked fairly ragged and spent most of her time in one spot, puffed and sleepy. Her keel felt sharp as well. Everything that I read suggested 'failure to thrive' which most sites attributed to bacterial infections. I started adding antibiotics to the drinking water in the hope that if there was an infection happening they'd take care of it. I also added in some feather fast to the food hoping that would help give her a boost and help her finish fledging out. Though I keep my room very warm as a rule I turned up the heat some more and slept in the living room. Sure enough by the next day, she seemed more active and alert. She's now on her third day of antibiotics, her keel doesn't feel nearly as sharp as it did, her feathers have mostly finished filling out, and she seems to be energetic. I have probiotics on hand to administer once the antibiotic is done in two days.
My question and concern comes with her behavior. Though she has been out of the nest now nearly two weeks, she makes little to no effort to fly or perch. She eats heartily on her own, and while I have yet to see her drink from the dish when the societies bathe and scatter water everywhere she quickly goes and sucks up the droplets. She will flutter from the ground to the food dish (which has been set on the ground) and perch on the edge though she seems to prefer simply sitting in the food. yet she makes no effort to sit on the lowest perch (which is only half a centimeter higher than the dish). She seems wobbly when she does perch. She will chase the societies around the cage begging if they are on the higher perches, but she remains on the ground. She seems extremely clumsy, far clumsier than Baby or Jaws ever were. If she does try and flutter up any higher she ends up falling onto her back and flopping around a bit until she gets righted. Once she kind of gave up and just laid on her back and cried...the mother society actually came down and fed her while she was sprawled on her back. Then she managed to right herself.
Has anyone else experienced this? Could she be clumsy due to whatever bacterial infection she may have had? Is there anything I can do to help strengthen or encourage her?
