When to separate young Goulds

[finchandlovebird]

A knowledgeable poster on this forum posted the following & I would like to have a discussion on this; I have some questions.

Code: Select all

"If you have not separated the juvs from the parents, about a month after they wean I would separate them. This is so you can control the diet of each. The juvs will start to molt into their adult feathers about a month or so after weaning. Then for the next 3-6 months they will be molting in their adult feathers. During that time, you should keep up the egg food to the juvs, at least 3x a week if not every day.
Once the parents are done breeding for the season, max 3 clutches, stop the egg food. 
When you see the parents molting, then give them egg food every day"

[/color]
My Goulds fledged 12/29. Not separate from parents yet. In a 61" w cage. No big signs of molting yet; one is showing yellow tummy. Parents are done breeding; no nest. WHY SEPARATE THEM? I would think the exercise in the big flight would be good for them. Still feeding egg food/seeds/greens. Don't they learn a lot of "stuff" from being with parents? When do they become "sexually active" so that I need to separate them to prevent in-breeding? Can I just feed "dry egg food" to them instead of real hard boiled eggs?

[debbie276]

I keep my juveniles with their parents for as long as space permits and separate only when the risk inbreeding happens next breeding season. I personally feel they do learn a lot from their parents and others in the flock. Dry egg food would be fine though I think fresh is better.
Best of luck

[dfcauley]

Same here.. I do not seperate the babies from the parents. When the hens are old enough to rehome or sell I usually do not keep my hens so that I do not have any inbreeding. I usually keep the males. But the juvies stay in my aviary with everyone else until they are colored out. I have no problems with this.....

[lovemyfinch]

I agree with the above. If the parents are not breeding there is no reason for separation.
As for eggfood, I must admit all of my birds get it year round. They seem to eat what they need and leave the rest. So I leave it up to them.

[finchandlovebird]

Glad to hear from you folks, as always with encouraging advice.
Now some more questions:
Do you know males are males only after they color up; or do they exhibit behaviors? Say you end up with 4 males; would you put them altogether in a cage by themselves? Would they fight? Same for females; would you cage them together; will they get along?
Is fall (in the northern hemisphere) the breeding season for Goulds? That's when my pair bred. I have another male who is doing courtship behaviors to two different females in his cage. They don't have a nest. I don't think I want breeding now. Advice????? There are 4 Goulds in that cage; adult male, 2 females which he courts & one I don't know about as it's not colored up fully. The male does chase that one around a lot; could it be a young male? What should I do about the bird being chased? Thanks.

[debbie276]

Males usually start to sing before they are colored so you'd know earlier then after the molt. I don't have a problem with males or females getting along together. There are breeders that separate their goulds into same sex cages when not breeding (mine stay together year round).
My gouldians molt around May, then start breeding after they molt (around July-August) till the end of December. A lot has to do with the conditions they are in, when they breed.
When they are not breeding it's not usual to have the males singing and posturing.
If the chasing gets too rough you may have to separate them. Each bird has it's own personality so maybe that male is a bit more aggressive then the other and bullying it. What size cage do you have them in? Usually if the cage is big enough for them to get out of each others way they do much better.

[finchandlovebird]

Thanks Debbie, the cage is 30 wide, 18 deep, 35 high; I would think that's plenty big for 4 Gouldians, huh?

[debbie276]

4 should fit nicely.

[dfcauley]

I agree it is all about their personalities. I have a couple of them that will chase in the aviary. I am amazed at how FAST they can fly!!!
The male juvies will hop up and down in a courtship behavior very young. I have had them to hop after only being out of the nest a few weeks. They will hop for males.... or females. Doesn't matter to them. It is so cute to me. But when you hear them sing you will know for sure!

[ac12]

When my pairs are done breeding (finished their 3rd clutch), I switch them to an austere diet to get them to molt. You do NOT what to do that to juvs.

With my last clutch, mom wanted to mate again and did not want the kids around. She would periodically chase them and jump on them. I did not want the juvs to pick up that kind of aggressive behavior, so I figured it was time to move the juvs out and let mom and dad do their next clutch w/o the juvs in the cage. They are sitting on clutch #3 right now.

I just picked up a male gouldian with a LOUD non-gouldian call. It was probably foster raised by societies. His juvs will be moved out as soon as they wean, so they don't learn his call. I want the chicks to sound like gouldians, not societies.

Some males will start trying to sing while still being fed, others take a LOT longer to sing. I have mine banded and color coded, so I can easily ID them when I catch a juv singing.

I put all the juvs into the male community cage to molt into their adult feathers, and so the males have singing males to learn from. Then as I figure out which ones are females (which can take months), ID them. When they finish molting, I move the females to the female community cage.

I keep M separated from F so they don't choose their own mates. I am breeding for specific colors, so I have to control the pairings. It is easier to pair them up when they have not selected their own mates.