First time hand feeding Cordon Bleu and a Gouldian

[a_gouldian]

We are attempting to hand feed Cordon Bleu and a Gouldian chicks for the first time. They were hatched within a few days from each other.

This is the fourth clutch for the Gouldians and they are good egg sitters but then toss the chicks. Two chicks hatched, they tossed one so we started hand feeding and took the other out of the nest before they tossed it. The one that was tossed passed away yesterday morning. Sunday morning is when we started hand feeding so I think the chick remaining is about 4 days old.

This is the second clutch for the Cordon Bleus. There were two chicks in the first clutch and they tossed them and they were dead when we found them. In this clutch there were 6 eggs. 5 hatched and they were not feeding the chicks so we removed them from the nest. One was dead but the other 4 are lively.
The CB chicks are probably 2-3 days old. They were in a bamboo basket and we didn't try peeking so as not to disturb them but it's good we did yesterday.

The attached pics were taken this morning right after they were fed so they are not begging for food when I took the pics.

We received some very nice Chocolate (1M, 1F) and a Fawn (1M) Self Societies about 2 weeks ago and they just settled into a nest box a few days ago. Not sure if we can use them to help with any of these chicks in the upcoming three weeks. Any input on that would be appreciated.

Andy

[lovezebs]

a_gouldian

Goodluck.

Handfeeding hatchlings is not easy (a lot easier when they're older).

I would be feeding every couple of hours and keeping them warm.

Re. Societies....
If they'd hatched these kids, they would feed the Gouldi's babies (not sure about the CB's).

[ac12]

The question is have the societies settled down into their new nest?

Put a few fake eggs into the societies nest, to see if they will SIT.
If they will SIT on the fake eggs, put the gouldian chick in the nest and keep an eye on them to see that they feed it. If they do feed the gouldian, the next day add 2 of the CBs, and then the last 2 CBs the day after.

Lots of egg food for them to feed the chicks.

gud luk

[a_gouldian]

The question is have the societies settled down into their new nest?

Put a few fake eggs into the societies nest, to see if they will SIT.
If they will SIT on the fake eggs, put the gouldian chick in the nest and keep an eye on them to see that they feed it. If they do feed the gouldian, the next day add 2 of the CBs, and then the last 2 CBs the day after.

Lots of egg food for them to feed the chicks.

gud luk

I will put in a few fake eggs tonight and see how that goes. The other Gouldian chick passed away this afternoon. It looked like it was doing well.

[ac12]

Hand feeding is HARD, VERY HARD.
IF the societies will adopt the chicks, that is the best solution.

[OAvila1986]

a_gouldian
That is so sad! I hope the societies adopt them. I ask that you keep us/me updated lol

I have society finches and I just breed them as a hobby I plan in the future to breed firefinches and hopefully the society finches will adopt the babies if the firefinch toss their young.

I have read about having your finches all lay eggs at the same time so when/if the tossing begins from the Gouldians and Cordon Bleu you can just toss the society finches out and replace them with gouldians and CBs finches.
It helps out too If you have more society finches breeding that Way you can just add a cordon B here and there so the society's babies won't be tossed.
Thanks hope this helps for a possible next time situation. Good luck.

[a_gouldian]

If the Societies are able to adopt the Cordon Bleu chicks I am a little concerned about the diet needs of the chicks. We are hand feeding them Vetafarm Insecta-Pro formula. The Societies have not taken to the egg food we feed the other birds yet. Tomorrow we may try mixing some of the Vetafarm Insecta-Pro in with their food to see if they like it. We have read that if the Cordon Bleu chicks do not get an insect based diet they will not do well. I am not sure if this is 100% true.

[Sally]

So sorry you lost the Gouldians, but as Gary said, hand feeding is so very hard. With waxbills, the difficulty is that they don't have the same crop as most other finches, they have crops that are more tubular, and they don't take in as much food at a feeding as some of the other species.

Gary has given you good advice on trying to get the Societies to feed. It is hard to get them to feed when they haven't already been sitting, but it has been done. Some Societies won't feed waxbills, but others will, so all you can do is give it a try. If you can get the Societies to feed, it would be so much easier on you.

Regular hand feeding formula is best, as it is nutritionally complete, but if the Insecta Pro is working for you, then stay with it. Try to get the Societies to eat it, and then they can feed it to the babies. I'm surprised your guys aren't eating egg food yet, most Societies take to it.

Good luck with this, and please keep us posted. You are taking on a challenge!

[a_gouldian]

The Societies are eating sprouted seed so we could try mixing some formula with it. We have 4 types of formula, not sure which would work best for the CB chicks if the Societies do feed them. Vetafarm Insecta-Pro, Formula One, Neocare, and Lafeber's Nutri-Start Hand feeding formula for Baby Birds.

We were using Neocare mixed with Pedialyte for the Gouldian chicks and the CB's yesterday. Picked up the Insecta-Pro today and switched the CBs to that this evening. They are eating it and are very lively with a surprising ability to crawl at this age.

I put a few dummy eggs in the Societies nest box late this afternoon and they were looking in the nest box, eying the eggs, but not going in. When we turned on the light at 10:30pm to do a feeding of the CB chicks the Societies were in the nest box sleeping and did not come out.

[Sally]

I happen to use Lafeber's Nutri-start, but if the Insecta-Pro is working for you, I'd stay with it. It may mix better with the sprouted seed for the Societies, too. If your Societies are eating sprouted seed, that is an excellent food for parents to give to their babies. With the addition of some Insecta-Pro, the CB babies should be fine, hopefully you can get the Societies to feed the CB babies.

[a_gouldian]

It looks like the Societies may have accepted the dummy eggs. They have been in and out of the nest all morning, continuing to build it around the eggs. I have never seen them work so much like they are on a mission. Even the female Society is helping a bit and I never saw her pick up nesting material and go into the nest with it the last few days until this morning.

The CB chicks are still being hand fed and seem to be doing fine. The nest step will be when do we put the chicks in the Society nest box? Maybe try tomorrow?

[Sally]

I haven't tried this before (adding already-hatched birds to a Society nest), but I would think you want to try it as soon as you can, as the older the birds get, the less likely the Societies will be to accept them. The best time may be when it is time for a feeding for the CB babies, so they will be begging and making sounds to get the attention of the Societies. CB babies are pretty quiet at first too, so that makes it harder for the Societies to be stimulated to feed them, as Society babies are vocal almost from the start!

[OAvila1986]

Thanks for the update! Keep us posted what happens next.

[a_gouldian]

Unfortunately we lost the Cordon Bleu chicks last night. I think that may be it for trying to hand feed hatchlings for us.

On a more positive note our pair of Owl Finches and Red-billed Fire Finches have started laying eggs for the first time. Hopefully the eggs will be fertile and they will be good parents. The Owl Finches are very young, 8-9 months old, so I am not sure if they are ready to be parents or steady nest sitters.

The Societies continue to work on their nest box and like it a lot. I hope they come into breeding condition soon. We have noticed today that the female is doing something new with her tail. She will move it up and down rapidly and the males seem to be drawn to her excitedly when she is doing this. I wonder if that is part of courtship/breeding? We have never had Societies before and they have been here a little over two weeks.

[a_gouldian]

Well, The Gouldians started another clutch in a different nest box. She laid her 6th egg this morning. This will be the last clutch for awhile to give her a break. We talked to an experienced Gouldian person and she suggested taking the eggs out of the Gouldian nest box just before the Societies go in for the night to roost and put them in the Society box. We did that and the Societies did go in to roost after finding the eggs. For that last week the female Society was giving mate acceptance signs and one of the males mounted her twice, but they haven't started laying eggs yet. We marked the Gouldian eggs when they were put in the nest. This young pair of Gouldians have been tossing chicks. Maybe in the Fall or Winter they will have snapped out of that habit.

We moved the female Gouldian to a new large flight cage and put in two lavenders to keep her company. The hope is that she will rest, go through a molt, and be ready for breeding in the Fall or Winter. Will we have two do this male/female cage separation all our finch pair varieties to give them a rest from the breeding cycle?