FinchG on 15th November 2011, 1:37 pm
.I think in regards to Gouldian breeding its about the individual birds. Most Gouldian owners do about the same thing in regards to setting their Gouldians up to breed.
They feed basically the same food, nests it seems vary but they usually have choices to offer their birds.
They normaly have privacy by having fake plants.
They try not to peek in the nests so as not to scare the parents away.
If you read different responses on forums you can tell they all do basically the same thing.
Then why do some toss eggs and hatchlings, leave the nest before they complete incubation or after the eggs hatch?
It seems to me its not the owner but it all depends on the Gouldian itself. A lot of the time we do not know where or how the purchased Gouldian was bred, nor do we always know the age.
Some say fledglings parent raised will be better parents them selves and if not given the chance will never know how to raise the chicks from egg to fledgling.
So maybe the good parents that some of us have were one of the lucky parent raised ones. Then the ones raised by foster parents would not be as reliable in raising theirs?
Some where there has to be an answer as to why some are good parents and some are not.
In my case I have two pairs, one pair is BH regular green backs and one pair is RH regular green backs. (that is the Gouldian term, to me they are more than regular green backs)
The BH female was still in molt on June 7th 2011 when i got her and has still not completed that molt as of today 11/15/2011. She did lay eggs in August, but they were not fertile but on October 29th I saw a tossed baby on the bottom of the cage. (I know she should not even be breeding because of being in a molt) I did not know any eggs had hatched until I looked which was about 30 min. before the already dead baby was tossed.
She did follow thru to raising one baby who should fledge this weekend, the other did die in the nest.
I removed both males and the societies as they were causing too much disruption. See my post in FinchChat.
I guess my point is here is a female Gouldian stuck in molt and still raised the one by herself, the odds were against her from the start.
The RH pair hatched their eggs in a deep basket so again I did not know theirs hatched. Both would take turns sitting and after the babies hatched the female did not want the male in the nest, she chased him away constantly, so that is when he was removed.
I think she has five babies that she has been taken care of by herself and they should also be ready to fledge this weekend. Everything you read says 5 is too many for one female to raise, the odds were against her in this one too.
The cage is in the busiest part of the house, there are always people going by and stopping to look, TV is always on and I am always looking and watching them.
Their nests are deep baskets with the fake greenery on top so you can't look in, and I guess for them it was enough privacy to raise their chicks.
So, every bird is different and every situation.
These are my first Gouldians and by no means am I qualified to say what works for others, but for me I say "It depends on the bird, not the owners."
FinchG
