gouldianyearlyroutine

Gouldian Finches -Yearly Routine
by Ernie Ninness (Rockhampton) Au. gouldian breeder for 40 years
Comprehensive Gouldian Information in
The Finch Breeder's Handbook
by the Queensland Finch Society Inc
The Natives The Foreigns

JANUARY	When my birds are almost through the moult, I take them off canary seed and leave them on hungarian and jap millet, and some green feed such as cabbage, spinach, celery and lucerne (alfalfa) As for December, plus I start to feed some seeding grass to them as well. The last week in JAN I put in my next boxes. By this time I am feeding quite a lot of seeding grass as well as the other greens.
FEBRUARY -	You should have eggs by the end of FEB. As soon as young appear I start to feed some canary seed in a separate container - only enough to last about an hour. This amount is increased slowly from this point on till by the time your first young leave the nest they are on it all day. still with the other millet mentioned. I will be feeding some white ants at this time as well... Gouldians will only eat about a dozen ants each per day, so if you give them too many they will just leave them.
MARCH	You will be in full swing with plenty of young coming out of the nest. If you have a reasonable size aviary for the number of breeding pairs, I would leave the young with their parents until the end of the breeding season. If you have tomove them to an adjoining aviary, where they can see their own kind. If you are breeding different head colours side by side then it is an advantage if they can not see the strain in the next cage as they are colour blind when it comes to the opposite sex. I do not like to move my young as I find that any upset at this time of their lives is likely to bring on a form of entro-hepatitis. All attempts to isolate the real cause has not been successful as yet, but the symptoms are always the same and of all the young gouldians I have done post mortems on Iwould say that 75% have died from one cause. The signs are always the same. On wetting the dead bird in a dish of sodium hypochlorite and parting the feathers along the sternum you will be able to see the mustard coloured flesh on opening the bird along this line., you will see that the flesh is quite yellow in colour and any fat around the vent and crop area will be a bright yellow in colour. Whole grain will be seen in the droppings and on opening up the gizzard you will find that the lining of the gizzard has come away and is a bright yellow colour.
MAY	By the end of May you should be thinking about ending your breeding season and concentrating on preparing both young and old for the moult. TREAT all birds for Air Sac Mite, worms and Trichomoniasis. .
JUNE to OCTOBER	Maintain same feeding programme
NOVEMBER	I start to reduce the intake of canary seed very slowly and by the end of December they are off this seed altogether. I do not feed white millet at all as I feel this seed is just too fattening, and canary is quite fattening enough. Nearly all egg binding in gouldians can be traced to their diet. Not enough greens and too much canary seed prior to breeding, is the most common cause.
	SOME PROBLEMS FOUND IN GOULDIANS
ENTERITIS	Treat the whole flock with Chlortetracycline (eg) Aureomycin Tricon 3 days on treatment 4 days off for three weeks and clean up the aviary with a good germicide like sodium hypochloride (bleach) and followup the treatment with Vitamin B Complex.
BALD HEADS	There may be more than one reason for this condition but one I am sure is a too vigorous male. Not many gouldian breeders ever see their birds mating as it nearly always takes place at the first light of day on the floor of the cage. The cock will often take hold of the back of the hens head in much the same manner as the parrot finch, and some males can be quite forceful in that they virtually rape the female if she is not willing. These hens will always have some feathers missing, but these will moult out to normal feathering at the annual moult.
MINERAL BLOCKS	DO give your gouldians blocks especially made for these birds and on NO account give them rock salt to eat. They love salt and will soon beome addicted to it which in turn will ruin their livers and kidneys. If salt is available to these birds they will always be seen pecking away at the salt and will develop a pasty white diarrhoea and eventually die. ERNIE NINNESS Copyright.