gouldians breeding?

[samboy]

can anyone help?.....im now breeding gouldians for the first time ...they have all the necessaties for breeding and in fact ive checked the nest today and suprisingly i found 5 eggs.....the females beak has not yet blackened though and they seem to be sharing the incubation during the day, but at night the pair both sleep outside the nest.....my questions is will she sit on the eggs eventually and any chance of the eggs being fertile?

[Crystal]

How long ago did she start/finish laying the eggs? Once they are laid, eggs remain viable for up to a week before incubation must start. Usually the hen will start incubating as soon as her 3rd egg is laid, though some wait until the clutch is complete. If she started 5 days ago, her clutch might not be complete yet. If you don't see them start to spend the night in the nest box within the next 2-3 days, the odds of the oldest eggs surviving greatly diminishes. If they do start incubating soon and they seem like a bonded pair, the eggs have a good shot at being fertile, provided that your birds are on a good diet and neither has any unusual health problems.

Good luck,
-Crystal

[sam]

thanks Crystal...
the day after i posted this message the hen did what she had to do and that was sit on her eggs at night....that was a relief.....being my first time with goulds, i am so impatient and excited and just want everything to go right, especially when youve got everything there for them....the other thing that bothers me now is , the females beak is has not blacken nor does it look like its getting any darker or black..its still red tipped..does that make a difference to the eggs?....will they be fertile?......broodings all normal....?

[Crystal]

The fact that her beak did not darken should not have an affect on her fertility. It is important not to disturb the birds too much now, especially when the babies start to hatch--the only time you should need to interfere is if the parents toss the babies. I personally limit myself to one nest check daily, if that. The more you hover about the nest (tempting to do when you're excited for potential young), the more you might scare the parents into abandoning it.

Good luck!

[Guest]

once again, thanks heaps Crystal....

[Gaviota]

My pair of gouldians have already 5 eggs, about 2 days ago I found one egg in the bottom of the cage opened. I think the hen take it away from the cage for some reason. They've been sharing the incubation process since they laid the first egg and this was on june 17. Today, we brought aand place a cage nest that you put it in the bottom of it to maintain it clean from the seeds and also put some oyster shells for the calcium and mix it with the food.

Today in the afternoon I see that the pair are out of the nest and we are worried about the incubation. I hope they get inside again and I tought it was about the changes we made with the cage .

What should I do if they abandoned the nest? Do I need to incubate them with a flashlight or other method. Can the societys incubate them? or they just take care of the babies? Thank You so much.

[Crystal]

If the parent gouldians have not returned to the nest by bed time, you can try giving the eggs to the society finches. A flashlight is not sufficient for incubating eggs, unfortunately, but society finches which are already nesting tend to be great at incubating eggs added to their clutch.

It's usually bad to interrupt incubation once it has begun, but if your pair started laying eggs on June 17, they should be very early in the incubation process and they don't sit on the eggs as tightly as a pair which is closer to the hatching date would. Everything may still be okay if the parents were just taking a break from nesting for a period of time.

Let me know how things work out for this pair's eggs!

[Gaviota]

If the parent gouldians have not returned to the nest by bed time, you can try giving the eggs to the society finches. A flashlight is not sufficient for incubating eggs, unfortunately, but society finches which are already nesting tend to be great at incubating eggs added to their clutch.

It's usually bad to interrupt incubation once it has begun, but if your pair started laying eggs on June 17, they should be very early in the incubation process and they don't sit on the eggs as tightly as a pair which is closer to the hatching date would. Everything may still be okay if the parents were just taking a break from nesting for a period of time.

Let me know how things work out for this pair's eggs!

Hy Crystal. My gouldians slept all night outside the cage. Today in the morning they both went inside the cage for seconds and then go out, like if they were verifying the nest . I go out for a while and went back in the afternoon and by that time the cock was inside the cage and he is still there , that makes me happy. I purchase my societies just in case I need them. What surprise me is that these pair of gouldians have been very good parents, since the first day and maybe by the changes and disturbance we made things change.

In case I need to use the societies, when I place them in the cage, ¿Do they need time to explore the cage and nest or they inmediately start incubation? ¿I need to put them togeter, right?

My husband and I take your advice really serious , Do not disturb or interrupt the incubation process once it has begun. For us this was a learning experience. Thank you so much Crystal.

[Crystal]

By "interrupt the incubation," I mean it is bad if the pair is sitting on eggs which have started developing and then leaves the eggs for an extended period of time. Sometimes human disturbance can cause this to happen, but sometimes other things are at fault (such as night frights).

I have a feeling you might still have a shot with your gouldians now that the cock has started incubating.

As for using society finches as foster parents, I have found it is best to keep the society finches in their own cage and to provide them with a nest and nesting material. Let them lay eggs and begin incubation. That way if you need to throw some more eggs or babies underneath them, they are already in "breeding mode" and will almost always take to the new additions.

Good luck!

[Gaviota]

They did it again, they sleep at night outside the cage and during the day only the cock is incubating the eggs . Is this normal? If they incubate the eggs during the day and leave then alone at night, the eggs could be save?

As for societies finch you mean that they need to lay eggs first and then place the gouldians eggs under them? Because if so, that takes a lot of time and we are out of time. What can I do?
Thank you so much .

[Crystal]

You can try placing the gouldian nest in the society cage and see if they will take over incubation, but don't be surprised if they do not. You may have to let your gouldian pair lay another clutch (unless this is already their third clutch) and set the societies up to breed, too, so that if the gouldians do not incubate the eggs, you will have societies ready. If the gouldians try to spend the night outside of the nest tonight again, I'd go ahead and transfer the eggs and/or nest with eggs to the societies.

[Gaviota]

This is their first clutch. Thanks Crystal, I will do that .