New to Gouldians - advice please

clannad · Post by **clannad** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:16 am

Thank you Kittani79 and FinchezRule!!!

I'm still trying to figure out if they are both laying eggs or if it's just the BH. All 13 eggs seem to have been found on the cage bottom underneath where the BH always sits.

If it's just the BH, how many eggs are too many? If it's both, how many eggs can I expect? Are they ever gonna stop???? LOL

FinchezRule · Post by **FinchezRule** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:03 pm

Well if they're just laying eggs like a chicken it's going to deplete their calcium and tax the body. Ideally the less non-fertile eggs laid the better. How do you stop it? I have no idea, it's mother nature...there's only so much we can get our birds to do. All you can do is provide cuttle bones, egg-shells and anything else that helps breeding birds.

Have you decided whether or not you're going to buy these ladies mates?

Post by **Hilary** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:25 pm

I agree that your RH is female - NICE red head on her. I also agree that you should keep up with the eggshells while they're laying like this. Cuttlebone is nice, but isn't as good at providing calcium and it sounds like they need it!

clannad · Post by **clannad** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:29 pm

Thank you FinchezRule and Hilary!

I'll continue to feed them everything I've been giving them including liquid calcium, and hope Mother Nature tells them to take a break in the near future...lol

The cage that the birds are in is only large enough for 2, maybe 3 birds.
Since I thought that I had purchased a male/female pair

The cage that I have would be fine, but now I don't know what to do. I really had not planned on getting the ladies mates. At least, not right away.

I had 2 male zebra finches that lived for 8 years, so I never had to deal with eggs or mates. That's why I had wanted 2 male gouldians.

My male zebra's got along great without female mates. Do the ladies need a mate? Or can they be happy and healthy just being with each other?

stevenroads · Post by **stevenroads** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:12 am

You have a great looking red head female there. I would trade you for a male but I live in San Diego. Maybe you can find someone close to you that would make a trade for one of them. They both look very healthy, may not be a pair but they look like they are both in great shape.
Good luck with them and hope to see you with baby's next year. (If you get a male). Or we will see your collection of 100 eggs. lol

Yup, both are "regular" colored greens. I was "pretty sure" that both are female as well. My husband is the picture taker, but by the time he gets home from work, the birds are sleeping. I'll try and get a good picture of them over the weekend.

At first, I was a little ticked that both birds were/ are possibly female. I had wanted 2 males, but since the only gouldians the store had was this one male/female

pair, I figured that I would take them both.

I'm still ticked at the store and would never go back, but I'm not sorry now that I have 2 females and a lot of eggs...lol They are both very sweet, eat everything I give them and tweet happily all day.

Thanks again for your help![/quote]

exoticgouldian · Post by **exoticgouldian** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 11:05 am

I think you should put a nest in your cage. So the female laying egss will hopefully start laying eggs there and eventually stop laying after she completes a clutch.

If not, if they keep laying like this, it really will drain her out. I had the same problem once with a molting hen. I added a nest and she stopped laying after 6 eggs and started sitting on them. ( of course they were infertile since there was no male in her cage ), but that fixed the problem.

kittani79 · Post by **kittani79** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 11:35 pm

You can get fake finch eggs too. Once she lays a clutch you sneak them in and take the real eggs out. She'll stop laying, nothing will rot in the nest, and she can get a break.

Post by **Hilary** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 12:23 am

They should be fine together without boys, though they do get cranky when they're in breeding mode!

clannad · Post by **clannad** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:44 am

Thank you all for the advice and compliments on the RH!

I am definitely going to try the nest box and fake eggs. (egg 15 found this morning and it's really starting to worry me)

Never having females before, I haven't a clue about nest boxes, nest lining material, nest building or even fake eggs. I'm pretty sure I saw a web site with fake finch/canary eggs, but the eggs looked blue???

Is there a particular nest box I should use? Should I get 1 nest or 2? Is there something I should get to line the nest? Do I line it, or do they?
Do I get fake white finch eggs or will the blue finch/canary eggs work?

I'm sorry for all of the questions. I will check out the Finch Information Center to see if I can get answers there. I just figured I'd throw some questions out there in case I don't find all of the info on the site.

The "ladies" seem to get along really well. (for now) The BH is the "teacher" and whatever she tries first, the RH will try too. They sleep "right smack dab next to each other" on the same treat cup perch each night. Should I expect any fights or spats when the nest box or boxes go in the cage?

Thanks again, everyone!!!

clannad · Post by **clannad** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:30 am

I found the answer to almost every question I had in the Finch Information Center!!!

Fantastic Link!!!

The only question now is whether I should use 1 nest box or 2.

Any advice?

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:54 am

Try two give them a choice, my gouldians like the wood type but I think they will pick what they want

clannad · Post by **clannad** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:09 pm

I think I'm going to hold off on the nest boxes for a few weeks and try mimicing their end of breeding season by removing the hard boiled eggs, dry egg food, miracle meal and bee pollen. I'll keep giving them crushed egg shells, oyster shell and cuttle bone daily, plus liquid calcium every other day.

I had a wonderful conversation this morning with a Lady Gouldian Breeder who suggested that I try this for 3-4 weeks before putting nest boxes in to see if this would trigger the hen/hens to stop laying eggs.

Doing it this way may cause them to begin their annual molt, but if they do molt, it should stop the egg laying.

The concern is that "neither hen appears to be in breeding condition since neither hen has a dark grey or black beak and they may not have the breeding hormones in their bloodstreams required to coat the eggs with calcium to prevent egg-binding."

If this does not work, I will try the nest boxes.

I sincerely appreciate all of the help and suggestions all of you have given me. Thank you all, very much!!!

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:24 pm

while using female beak color is a helpful indicator to breeding condition it is not infallible, I have had some females whose beak never changes at all and they still breed

Post by **Hilary** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:52 pm

Agree about the beak color. Just keep a close eye on them, keep up with the calcium supplements, and keep liquid calcium around in case of emergencies.

clannad · Post by **clannad** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:05 pm

Thank you Mickp and Hilary!

You explaination about beak color really made me feel better. I have no experience with female finches and thinking that they may be too young to lay "hard enough" eggs, scared the beejeebies out of me, especially since they've laid 16 eggs already. Yup, the 16th egg was this morning.

Spent the morning running around looking for nest boxes and fake eggs, but was out of luck as none of the petshops or petsmarts/petcos had any.

I'll definitely keep my eye on the birds and continue with the calcium supplements. I'm still really worried though, but you've both made me breath a little easier!!! Thank You!!!