What is wrong with my Aussie birds?

[MariusStegmann]

I have had no luck with my Star and Long-tail Grass finches. My Grass finches has just abandoned their 3rd clutch of babies and my Stars have abandoned 2 sets of babies. Someone told me that stars don't like you to look inside their nests, but after the 1st set of chicks was abandoned, I stopped poking my fingers inside their nests. I wonder if they would abandon chicks if you are just in the vicinity of the nests. Someone told me on Saturday that they don't even go inside their aviaries when the Stars are breeding. They feed from the outside. My Diamond Firetails, also an Aussie bird are breeding fine.

[cindy]

Both species are pretty private.... How do you have them set up?

[MariusStegmann]

cindy I have them in a 3 meter X 1.8 m X 1.8 m outside aviary. Lately I don't looks in those 2 species nests, but I look inside the other birdnests and I would then be within a few feet of their nests. I immediately saw yesterday that my grassfinches had abandoned their little ones again because they were looking around for a nest.

The other grassfinches I had, always raised their babies. The grassfinches mostly pick a nestbox with a half open front. The stars likes to build their own nest inside brush. I always have a lot more nests than pairs, and don't have aggressive birds like zebras. In fact stars and grassfinches don't let other birds near their nests.

[Rox]

Marius, are you feeding any live food yet? Kobus in Somerset West breeds stars and grass finches and he uses live food (he actually goes out and gets termites). I bred quite a few stars on mealworms when I started with the birds.

[MariusStegmann]

I might have the reason the grassfinches abandoned their chicks. On Saturday I caught out a red-eared waxbill hen to swap her out for a cock. I always chase the birds out of the aviary and catch the birds in the small enclosed area in front of the aviary. I never thought of that because I managed to catch the bird quickly and without a fuss, the pair of grassfinches were one of the birds that were chased outside the aviary. If this is the case, I won't be able to catch any birds in the aviary while they are breeding!

[Rox]

Set up a trap. It's what I do for when the birds are breeding. Takes longer to catch them but at least you don't disrupt the birds that are sitting.

[MariusStegmann]

Rox I am in a bit of a catch 22 situation. I stopped giving livefood lately because lately because mealworms makes the parrotfinches too fat en therefore less fertile. Also I seem to have very few worms left, they all turned into bugs. I also don't really know where to get termites. The birds don't really enjoy the brown ones, they want the white grubs. Those termites you get inside black termite hills. The guy where I got the grassfinches from, ensured me that he don't feed his birds livefood, only spinach and seed. But I feed them a lot of green seeds and they quite enjoy eggfood.

[MariusStegmann]

Rox In my case, both species don't abandon eggs, just chicks and also only when the chicks gets to an age where the parents don't have to sit on them. Perhaps they don't sit on them at night, and they die of the cold. But I will get out the trap.

[Rox]

That is the problem with mixed aviary's. You can't control who gets the live food and PF's are little piggy's. I also don't know where to get termites. Kobus goes inland to get his but that is a mission...
Re mealworms, I started my colony up in June and I'm only now starting to get lots of worms. It just takes about 6-8 weeks to get the cycle going.

It could have been the cold temps during the night that got the chicks, it has been pretty chilly. Especially early hours of the morning. Holding thumbs that you have better luck on the next round and it's finally starting to get warmer (thank goodness!).

Thankfully our season has only just started, so lots of time for the birds still

[monotwine]

MariusStegmann Sorry your birds abandoning. Never kept grassfinches, but know the Stars are notorious at being flighty when breeding. Mine only once managed one baby and they abandoned that too. Not my doing they keep building their own nest right on my pathway between aviary and house. They must choose a better spot if they want privacy!

Stay away from the black "ant" hills. They are not termites. Don't have any nutritional value and don't recuperate like termites if you disturb their mounds. They take many many more years to build their mounds than termites.
A very good alternative to termites for us capetonians is maggot larvae. You need to look on Aussie sites how to build a maggot box. You feed them on milkpowder and bran. Works a charm.

[monotwine]

OR just go buy black soldier fly maggots in bulk, freeze them and consider it a cost to breeding.