Gouldian eggs???

[lovezebs]

slwatson

Great news.
I hope your keeping track of who belongs to which parents, lol.

[slwatson]

lovezebs

I think I have it figured out...at least I hope

[slwatson]

My yellow and blue gouldian pair are doing great with their babies! I checked yesterday, and it looks like there are four....two large, and two smaller. I couldn't tell for sure, but mom and dad are both feeding and doing a great job caring for the babies.

My societies are still going strong with their foster gouldian babies. From what I can tell, I think there are three babies, but the nest is a throw away and is hard to see into clearly.

I do have some really sad news though....my second pair of gouldians had been sitting on eggs in their nest, and my husband was concerned the male had escaped somehow because he wouldn't come out of the nest. I checked, and he had died inside the nest. I think it must have happened sometime last week. It's so sad...his mate had been sitting next to him on the eggs for days and I didn't know. I removed him, and replaced the nesting material, and she's still sitting on the eggs. It looked like maybe one egg was good, but I'm not great at candling eggs. I dropped one and I'm still sick about it. She pops out occasionally like she's expecting him to come back. They were my first true bonded pair

[lovezebs]

slwatson

Sorry about your Gouldi boy, Stacie. It is so sad when these things happen. Hopefully your girl, will hatch whatever eggs are in the nest and raise the chick (s).

Congratulations on the rest of the growing crew

[Babs _Owner]

slwatson

Stacie, Im sorry to hear about your little man dying on the nest Its the most horrible feeling pulling a dead parent off chicks or eggs. I still cringe when I had to remove 3 dead parents out of two societies nests.

The dedication of the mother willing to keep going with her eggs is just amazing. She is a good mommy and even if she doesnt hatch them, she is really showing she will do well when you find her another suitor.

Try putting her all her food, millet and water very close to her nest entrance, so she doesn't have to stray far. We dont want her starving or weakening herself either.

[debbie276]

So sorry for your loss
The hen should do fine on her own, please keep us posted

[slwatson]

Thanks everyone...I was shocked when I found him like that. I do have another male right now who's in the society flight with a female, but she's too young to lay eggs. I'm thinking if momma's eggs aren't fertile, I'll put him with her so she doesn't have to be alone. I wasn't sure if I could do that now or not....would it be ok if I did it now?

[Babs _Owner]

slwatson

If you introduce another male she may become more interested in mating than with sitting.

[slwatson]

Babs

That's what I was thinking too....I'll just wait and see if her eggs hatch.

[slwatson]

We had a bit of a panic early this morning....my husband woke me up at 4:30 to tell me our electricity was out, and the bird room was already getting colder. We had a winter storm that accumulated a lot of ice. About ten minutes after we covered all of the cages with blankets, the electricity came on, so now they have heat

When I took the blankets off, I noticed a gouldian baby on the bottom of the cage of the societies. It's one of the fosters they're taking care of currently. I picked it up, and the little nodes or nodules on it's mouth looked blue to me. I don't know if that's possible or what that means. I went ahead and put him back into the nest, only because it wasn't even trying to fly, so I was afraid it had fallen out in our panic to cover the cages.

As I put it back, I noticed for the first time that there are two society hatchlings about to fledge mixed with two (I think) gouldian hatchlings. So while my societies have been fostering the gouldians, they also got busy and laid some eggs in the nest with the gouldian eggs They're both totally different too...one looks like he'll be chocolate pied, and the other is a self fawn or chestnut colored. Little stinkers! I wasn't expecting that at all!

[debbie276]

Watch carefully, society's wean much earlier then gouldians. If they have society chick's they may stop feeding too early for the goulds.
Good luck

[slwatson]

debbie276

Thanks for the reminder Debbie. This morning, the two gouldians were out of the nest, and the two societies were still in the nest. They seem more hesitant to come out...I'll check to make sure they're getting still getting fed. Right now, one is out of the nest and the other is in.

[slwatson]

Here are some pics of the society babies and gouldian babies....all being raised by societies

[debbie276]

Adorable!

[slwatson]

The gouldi chicks have figured out that if they go back into the nest with the two society chicks, the parents will still feed them when they beg, so they've been doing that off and on today.