newbie to gouldians

[greeneyes]

Hi everyone, I'm a 20 yr old guy situated in cape town. I'm new to gouldian finches and to finchforum. I currently have 10 gouldian pairs, 3 pairs long tailed grass finches , 2 pairs of common waxbills, 1 pair star finches and 3 pairs canaries.
all my birds are outdoor bred and are housed in a outdoor aviary.
I purchased my gouldians last year january and had them for about a year now. I have tried to breed them but was unsuccessful.
Any ideas on how to breed gouldians! !!

[Sally]

I can't help you much with breeding Gouldians, I have limited experience with this species. I did want to welcome you to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on breeding, diet, housing, and especially the Gouldian finch. We have some members from South Africa who are working with this species, so they should be able to help you.

[Rox]

Welcome D and I'm glad you joined the forum!! Lots to learn here and read up on

We spoke about diet before and I do believe it is the most important part. My birds get fresh egg food, veggies and fruit daily. They eat it with relish and need the soft food to feed chicks. Seed alone is not enough to stimulate breeding or to get the birds into breeding condition. Give them a chance on the new diet and I'm sure you will have success.

Keep us updated!

[steve]

I currently have 10 gouldian pairs, 3 pairs long tailed grass finches , 2 pairs of common waxbills, 1 pair star finches and 3 pairs canaries.

Hi greeneyes

Have any of your other birds bred?, What is your Aviary size?

Welcome to the forum.

Regards
Steve

[dan78]

Hello greeneyes, gouldians are a simple finch to breed once they start and will on average breed readily every year but getting them started is the tricky part. Diet can play a part in helping gouldians get into breeding condition as well as help them get in the mood to say but this is only one factor to take into consideration which maybe important but still only one. After many attempts and failures for me I did give up and them started new with fresh pairs many times before I hit the right birds to suit my way which can play a part in the birds so this may be a way which may benefit some breeders but not all as I live in the land of gouldians so I have a large amount to choose from. We also have to take into consideration the previous owners ways of breeding as they do feel comfortable in similar surroundings nesting sites and food as a healthy bird is important but a happy bird will breed. You could try many types of nest boxes such as the L shaped box to small finch boxes and even budgie boxes with the smaller opening used for finches. Supply many boxes and give a bit of spacing between them as gouldians can become aggressive around breeding time and may take a few nests as their territory, place nests high as they love higher boxes over lower. You can even try filling half of the best box with nesting material to sort of help them along and I find natural grasses to be a fav but every bird will have their own individual favourites to use. As for food mine simply aren't very adventurous and stick to greens, seed and boiled egg but do and try extra food types as you may find yours will be more accepting. If you can get your hands on some wild green seeding grasses or milk seed as some call it would be of great benefit and may help to stimulate the breeding cycle. You will need to find the season in which your birds will breed as having an outdoor aviary mine pick autumn through to spring to breed and cut out October through to march as rest time, so the cycle which the birds breed will be helpful roughly two months after moult which mine finish in dec. hope this may have been of some help

[MariusStegmann]

greeneyes My personal believe is that you must create a situation where you have happy and contented birds. First your aviary must be right. Second you must give them the right food. I feed eggfood, mixed with scrambled eggs and mealworms to my birds every day. If I can, I give them green seed-sprays. Sprouted seeds I give them every couple of days. I am a novice to gouldians, and have not had mine for long, and mine just started breeding right now.

[greeneyes]

Hi guys thanks for all the advice. I have changed their diet about a week ago to condition them up for breeding. The diet I feed them is the mix finch mix, mix canary seed, jap millet nd spray millet. I give them on a daily basis in the morning boiled egg with the shells. I also give them premolt 5 , vitamin e and vitamin supplements.
My birds are in a mixed outdoor aviary with a couple of small tree's. The only birds breeding are my canaries and my society finches.
I have 2 outdoor aviaries, one aviary being 2meter long X 1.8 meter high and 1 meter wide which house's a breeding pair of Fife canaries and 2 breeding pairs society finches. The bigger aviary that I recently built 3 months ago is 3meter long X 2meter high X 1.6 wide, which houses a pair of stars finches, 3 pairs long tailed grass finches, 20 pairs gouldian finches, 2 pairs common waxbills and a pair of canaries.

[Rox]

You probably have too many birds for you aviary. Rule of thumb is 1 pair of birds per square meter. That is 6 pairs for your bigger aviary. You might get away with pushing it up to 10-12 pairs but 27 pairs is too many. It creates too much competition over food, nests spots etc.

My aviary is 3mx2mx2m = 6sqm. I have 8 breeding pairs in total in this aviary (3 pairs are gouldians) and they are breeding like mad.

Less is more when it comes to breeding in aviary's

[MariusStegmann]

I totally agree with Roxanne. 20 Pairs of Gouldians! You will do better to put those pairs in Canary breeding cages.

[Toddmin]

That does sound like too many birds in the aviary. I don't colony breed. I pair my Gouldians into their own breeding cages during the breeding season. Gouldians are the only birds I breed.

[Sally]

I always wonder with colony breeding how people can keep track of bloodlines? I once had several pairs of Gouldians in a flight cage, and two hens used the same nest box. Thirteen eggs, 11 hatchlings, but someone tossed 7 of the babies, so I only got 4 babies out of it, and I had to treat them all as siblings.

[Toddmin]

Sally, that's just it, you can't really keep track or determine blood lines with colony breeding. That's probably the biggest reason why I don't colony breed.

[Colt]

I would agree with everyone saying that is too many birds in the space you have provided for them. Crowded birds spend time competing for food, water, and space. They don't have the energy to spare on breeding. I think you'll find if you spread the birds out over several more aviaries that size or pull some of the Gouldians into breeding cages, you'll be much more successful breeding them.

[KarenB]

I think that was a mistype. He originally said he had 10 pair of gouldians, so 20 gouldians total. I may be mistaken. Still a lot of birds, though.