After having had little success with pairing my gouldians, my wife and I finally just added 4 nests to our large flight cage. (I kept 1 pair in a breeding cage and gave them a new wooden nestbox, they just hatched 8 little one's who are now about 2 days old)...
Not long after adding the nests, there were eggs everywhere, but no one was sitting on them. So I pulled 4 out and placed them under a society pair who are now raising the nestings who are about 2 weeks old.
Yesterday I looked in the nests and saw many eggs, so I decided to candle them all and "weed out" the duds...
I found 18 eggs in one nest with a male and a hen sitting on them, I found 4 more in a plastic nestbox un-attended and 3 more in a bamboo nest also unattended. The 7 eggs found in the other 2 nests were all "bad" and were thrown out. Amazingly 10 of the 18 found under the "parents" were "good" after candling. So I replaced all the good eggs and put them back. "Mom and Dad" are now sitting on them again. What's truely amazing to me is that I've never read any books or articals about gouldian's exibiting this behavior before (laying eggs in somone else's nest for them to care for).
I'm unsure what's going to happen when these 10 hatch, but I'm going to let it happen and see where it goes.
Has anyone else heard of such behavior by gouldians before?
Gouldian "group" breeding...
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rottielover
- Flirty Bird
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exoticgouldian
- Nestling
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oh yeah, this happens in community cages or aviaries when you have several gouldian pairs together.
My friend once had 3 pairs in an aviary, there was a pair sitting on eggs, (they had 6, and were incubating), one hen basically forced herself into that nest and laid an egg. Eventually there were 10 eggs in that nest and all hatched and the parents took care of them.
Thats the problem with breeding gouldians in communities, you wouldnt have a clue which baby belongs to which parent
, but you surely can end up having a lot more babies if others arent too nosy other than to lay extra eggs in the neighbors nest. 
My friend once had 3 pairs in an aviary, there was a pair sitting on eggs, (they had 6, and were incubating), one hen basically forced herself into that nest and laid an egg. Eventually there were 10 eggs in that nest and all hatched and the parents took care of them.
Thats the problem with breeding gouldians in communities, you wouldnt have a clue which baby belongs to which parent
, but you surely can end up having a lot more babies if others arent too nosy other than to lay extra eggs in the neighbors nest. -
rottielover
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Lucky for me my flight cage currently has 11 birds in it, and all are of different colors. I stilll won't be able to tell exactly who the parents are but I should be able to come up with a reasonable estimate.
I plan to go back to my origial plan which was to seperate pairs into breeding cages. I think my "lack of luck" was me choosing the pairs, when you let the birds choose their own mate, things seem to work out much better ;)
I plan to go back to my origial plan which was to seperate pairs into breeding cages. I think my "lack of luck" was me choosing the pairs, when you let the birds choose their own mate, things seem to work out much better ;)
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jamezyboo21
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wow thats kinda cool in a way but then its not if you end up having more birds than you can keep in the cage. Does anyone know if zebra finches do that in communities?
Society Finches, Fire Finches, Strawberry Finches, Owl Finches, Plum Head Finch, Goldbreast Waxbill Finches, Orange Cheek Waxbill Finches, Blue Capped Cordon Finches, Zebra Finches, Bronzewing Mannikin Finches, Red-Cheek Cordon Blue Finches, and Button Quail
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chrischris
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exoticgouldian
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rottielover
- Flirty Bird
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rottielover
- Flirty Bird
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Well I guess you could say things went haywire...
I caught the male with a nestling in it's beak flying back and forth the length of the flight cage. Eventually he landed on the floor of the cage and dropped the baby.
Fortunately I had given a society hen a "clutch" of fake eggs and she's been sitting on them for several days (this was a just in case measure).
I moved the remaining 3 baby's from the nest and scooped up the dropped little one and put them all under her (replacing the fakes eggs).
So far so good.... She's feeding them and sitting on them.
Unfortunately I don't have any more society's available to help her out. I'm starting to wonder if supplemental hand feeding may be needed??
On the good news side of things the hen and the cock in this flight were both good parents until last night (I noticed that the other birds in the flight were all trying to "get a peek" at the baby's). I think the cock got spooked and started tossing from all the other birds "intruding"...
However, it did give me the chance to remove all nest boxes and materials from the main flight cage. When things have calmed down I plan to separate the males and females by placing a divider in the middle of the flight.
Just to recap I have 3 clutches going, 1st was fostered to a proven pair of Society's, 2nd is a nest box of gouldians with both gouldian parents taking good care of the baby's (I think there are 6-7 chicks left, all nearly feathered now. and 3rd was the clutch in the main flight, now with my only remaining society hen.
On a side note the first clutch of fosters has fledged, and they are learning to fly around the breeding cage and have made the first attempts at feeding themselves. Based on my estimated hatch date for the 2nd clutch, I expect to see them outside the nest box within a week or two. Time will only tell if the society hen can raise the 4 gouldian chicks "rescued" from the main flight.
However I try to look at everything in a positive light.. I was able to get goudians to pair up and hatch baby's (before they did not like the mates I was choosing for them).
Now I just have to decide how I'm going to arrange the remaining cages I have....
I currently have:
1 very large flight (about 6 feet long)
1 smaller flight (about 4 foot long)
4 smaller breeding cages (I think these are the 16x16 models)
3 larger breeding cages (I think these are about 30" wide)
Very Large Flight is holding 10 gouldian adults
Smaller flight is currently empty
1 small breeding cage is holding a society hen and 4 gouldian nestlings
1 large breeding cage is holding a gouldian pair with 6-7 nestlings
1 large breeding cage holding society pair and 4 gouldian and 2 Society fledglings
I was thinking about making the smaller flight cage into the "baby holder"... IE put the weaned young in there... However, I had also thought maybe I should move the cocks to the small flight, leave the hens in the large flight and put the weaned young into the large flight.....
Advice would be appreciated. The large flight can be separated with a divider and turned into 2 "smaller" flights....
I caught the male with a nestling in it's beak flying back and forth the length of the flight cage. Eventually he landed on the floor of the cage and dropped the baby.
Fortunately I had given a society hen a "clutch" of fake eggs and she's been sitting on them for several days (this was a just in case measure).
I moved the remaining 3 baby's from the nest and scooped up the dropped little one and put them all under her (replacing the fakes eggs).
So far so good.... She's feeding them and sitting on them.
Unfortunately I don't have any more society's available to help her out. I'm starting to wonder if supplemental hand feeding may be needed??
On the good news side of things the hen and the cock in this flight were both good parents until last night (I noticed that the other birds in the flight were all trying to "get a peek" at the baby's). I think the cock got spooked and started tossing from all the other birds "intruding"...
However, it did give me the chance to remove all nest boxes and materials from the main flight cage. When things have calmed down I plan to separate the males and females by placing a divider in the middle of the flight.
Just to recap I have 3 clutches going, 1st was fostered to a proven pair of Society's, 2nd is a nest box of gouldians with both gouldian parents taking good care of the baby's (I think there are 6-7 chicks left, all nearly feathered now. and 3rd was the clutch in the main flight, now with my only remaining society hen.
On a side note the first clutch of fosters has fledged, and they are learning to fly around the breeding cage and have made the first attempts at feeding themselves. Based on my estimated hatch date for the 2nd clutch, I expect to see them outside the nest box within a week or two. Time will only tell if the society hen can raise the 4 gouldian chicks "rescued" from the main flight.
However I try to look at everything in a positive light.. I was able to get goudians to pair up and hatch baby's (before they did not like the mates I was choosing for them).
Now I just have to decide how I'm going to arrange the remaining cages I have....
I currently have:
1 very large flight (about 6 feet long)
1 smaller flight (about 4 foot long)
4 smaller breeding cages (I think these are the 16x16 models)
3 larger breeding cages (I think these are about 30" wide)
Very Large Flight is holding 10 gouldian adults
Smaller flight is currently empty
1 small breeding cage is holding a society hen and 4 gouldian nestlings
1 large breeding cage is holding a gouldian pair with 6-7 nestlings
1 large breeding cage holding society pair and 4 gouldian and 2 Society fledglings
I was thinking about making the smaller flight cage into the "baby holder"... IE put the weaned young in there... However, I had also thought maybe I should move the cocks to the small flight, leave the hens in the large flight and put the weaned young into the large flight.....
Advice would be appreciated. The large flight can be separated with a divider and turned into 2 "smaller" flights....
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atarasi
- Weaning
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Rottielover,
I just read this and thought it was interesting....
If you have a pair of Gouldians that have been living in the same cage together and haven't gone to nest yet, you can introduce another cock and the cock that has been in the cage will look at him as a threat and will simulate the orginal pair to breed. The hen will generally not accept the "intruder" because you would then remove the cock after a few hours.
I haven't had a pair not accept each other yet, but I'm going to definitely try this.
I just read this and thought it was interesting....
If you have a pair of Gouldians that have been living in the same cage together and haven't gone to nest yet, you can introduce another cock and the cock that has been in the cage will look at him as a threat and will simulate the orginal pair to breed. The hen will generally not accept the "intruder" because you would then remove the cock after a few hours.
I haven't had a pair not accept each other yet, but I'm going to definitely try this.
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atarasi
- Weaning
- Posts: 1643
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:50 pm
- Location: Washington state, USA
Rottielover,
I just read this and thought it was interesting....
If you have a pair of Gouldians that have been living in the same cage together and haven't gone to nest yet, you can introduce another cock and the cock that has been in the cage will look at him as a threat and will simulate the orginal pair to breed. The hen will generally not accept the "intruder" because you would then remove the cock after a few hours.
I haven't had a pair not accept each other yet, but I'm going to definitely try this.
I just read this and thought it was interesting....
If you have a pair of Gouldians that have been living in the same cage together and haven't gone to nest yet, you can introduce another cock and the cock that has been in the cage will look at him as a threat and will simulate the orginal pair to breed. The hen will generally not accept the "intruder" because you would then remove the cock after a few hours.
I haven't had a pair not accept each other yet, but I'm going to definitely try this.
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Sally
- Mod Extraordinaire
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- Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:55 pm
- Location: DFW, Texas
Rottielover, I had 5 LGs, 2 males and 3 hens, in the HQ single flight cage, I think it is 32x21x35high. On a whim, I put in nestboxes. I did get babies, but don't really know the parentage (some nestboxes got eggs from at least two hens). I did have one clutch (multiple hens, I'm sure) that was I think 11. Ten hatched, but one day when I was gone all day, came home to find 6 little bodies on the floor of the cage. I wonder if they were trying to get the clutch down to a manageable size. They tossed one more, so I took the remaining 3 and fostered them under Societies. They are almost weaned now. The other 6 older babies are in a juvie flight cage.
I will not do this again, I think it is better to give each pair a cage of their own, unless you have an aviary so everyone has plenty of room (and then you still lose control of parentage).
I think your lone Society hen will be OK. Unless she is terribly young, she should be able to handle 4 LG babies by herself, but keep an eye on things. You should be able to see fairly full crops most of the time, so if you don't see that, then you would need to do supplemental feeding.
I will not do this again, I think it is better to give each pair a cage of their own, unless you have an aviary so everyone has plenty of room (and then you still lose control of parentage).
I think your lone Society hen will be OK. Unless she is terribly young, she should be able to handle 4 LG babies by herself, but keep an eye on things. You should be able to see fairly full crops most of the time, so if you don't see that, then you would need to do supplemental feeding.