Help! Gouldians Fighting and Dying

[LauraBird]

Hello,

I have a big flight cage (about 9 feet across) with (at this time), 5 male and 6 female Gouldian Finches, and one (sick) society finch (her sister died recently). Actually, 5 female Gouldians - one died last night after I observed at least 3 males trying to mate with her - I separated her, but it was too late. Now, I have the 5 males who are chasing and fighting each other (to the ground, with seeming injuries). The males seem aggressive with the other females, as well. I have a lot of nests which all appear to have unfertilized eggs in them.

I don't know what to do...

1. Separate the females to the divided part of the cage? Or will that make the males fight more?
2. Removed unfertilized eggs?
3. Remove nests totally? Just worried about egg binding or other issues.
4. Get more females to help breeding ratio.

This is not a brand new flock - I think almost all, if not all, have been through a breeding season together.

Thanks for your help! I really don't know how to help them. Laura

[Sally]

How unusual for Gouldians to be fighting to this extent. I don't have any experience with this, hopefully some of our members with Gouldians will be able to offer some advice.

[debbie276]

That is very strange for the gouldians to be so aggressive.
So do I understand that all these bird have been together (even the societies) with you for some time and this is a new behavior?

[sadhak]

I have read about it, and quote from the book 'Guide to Gouldian Finches & their mutations' under establishing breeding pairs:-

Fertility is paramount to future breeding success. The selection of pairs is the single most important ingredient for determining offspring quality and establishing a family of healthy Gouldians. Fertility is known to be a hereditary characteristic passed down the cock line. Mr. Ron Tristram uses an "Alfa male/female System" that employs the same selection processes found in Nature to improve fertility and production. He places three or four pairs of young birds from a strong genetic and fertility background into flights measuring approximately 1metre wide by 3.5 metre long by 3 metre high to select their own partners.

Mr.Tristram believes pair bonding (i.e. allowing the birds to select their own mates) creates better breeding results and states "Extreme vigilance during this process is necessary as fighting for partners may lead to death. The fact that these birds determine their own mate and nesting sites results in them becoming prolific producers of high quality stock. I like and encourage Alfa birds, as this is the law of the wild. Both hens and cocks can become aggressive. This aggression is a sign of virility but great care must be taken to avoid deaths during the pairing process. Overly aggressive pairs should be immediately moved to single pair housing where they are able to concentrate on their breeding activities."

[lovezebs]

LauraBird sadhak

I have never seen Gouldians fight , ever!!!
You might get the occasional little squabble over a favorite sleeping perch, which is usually resolved with the apologetic intruder leaving the scene, but fighting, never.

There are no nests in the flight.
If I decide to breed, I remove the pair ( who get to choose their own mates) into a separate cage, to allow for privacy, and leave them free to concentrate on breeding, laying, hatching and rearing their babies.

I would remove all the nests, separate the males and the females into separate flights, and cut back on the proteins until things settle down.

Just my opinion.

Good luck

[LauraBird]

Thanks everyone for your opinions! My email hadn't been notifying me when everyone was giving advice, so I just read all of these now.

All the birds have been together for a while. I think one problem is now I have an equal number of males and females, but one of the females seems to have difficulty molting, so I'm not sure they consider her a suitable mate. In addition, I have several different varieties of color, and I've caught boys courting boys many many times - maybe the uncommon colors confuse them?

I hate to add new birds into the flock when everything is so strange, but maybe that's what needs to happen - more females.

I'll check the nests - they had a lot of infertile eggs there last time I checked - might clean those out and see what happens for a week or two.

Thanks again, Laura