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[Home] [Gouldian Finch Pricing] [Shopping] [Information] [Payment & Shipping Policy] [Contact Us] [January] [February] [March] [April] [May] [June] [July] [August] [September] [October] [November] [December] Step # 2 - February - 12 Steps to Success Breeding Gouldian Finches 2. February –
Begin Preparation for Molting & Breeding Season Molting &
Breeding:
During the breeding season Gouldian finches expend most of their energy
towards picking a mate, protecting or guarding their nest or territory from the
other Gouldians in their cage, building or adding to their nesting material and
then making and raising babies. During this time they do not eat as much as they
do other times of the year such as in the winter to keep warm and during early
spring and summer when they begin molting or getting new feathers.
During the breeding season some of your birds may get rather aggressive.
There is usually a little picking of feathers, chasing each other around
the cage and some birds may actually grab another bird’s wing and toss them
out of the nest box they are staking claim to or chase another bird around, hold
on to their wing and hang them from a perch to show dominance to another overly
aggressive bird. This is perfectly
natural and don’t worry, they will not hurt each other.
Molting can be very hard on the Gouldian
finch if they are not prepared in advance with the proper nutrients because they
must produce such vibrant colorful feathers. If
Gouldians don’t have an ample supply of nutrients available in their system
ahead of time, molting can actually cause death.
Because of this you should begin to prepare your birds for the upcoming
molting and breeding season early, especially the hens, to prevent egg binding
while breeding and to eliminate any other molting problems.
The molting process usually takes about 4 to 6 weeks but each bird is a
little different.
After completing the preventative
maintenance in January we start our birds on a regiment of Frisky Finches Feather Glow Avian Nectar Liquid Vitamins
We start with the feather glow vitamin and calcium regiment the first
week of February and alternate with fresh water in between treatments through
the entire breeding season. 4 days
on with feather glow and liquid calcium, 3 days off with plain water each
week.
This vitamin and calcium regiment will continue until the end of October,
however in July during the hot summer months through October we reduce the
liquid vitamin and calcium regiment and alternate this formula to every other
week or skip a week in between and give the birds just plain water for the full
week; one week on (4 days on the vitamins & calcium, 3 days off and continue
with pure water the following week), or an additional week off.
In other words you will only be treating your birds with liquid vitamins
and calcium for 2 weeks out of the month. Note: At the end of February we remove the breeding season/winter Gouldian seed mix and reintroduce it in April for the molting and breeding seasons. You could probably just leave the breeding season/winter mix in year round to simplify things a little if you like.
Don’t worry if you are not able to follow
this regiment perfectly day by day, week by week to the exact schedule.
As long as you follow this as closely as possible it will work.
Just be sure to give your bird’s regular time off the formula with pure
untreated water. It is not a good
idea to have your birds on liquid vitamins all the time.
They will need pure water as all living creatures do.
If you leave the birds on vitamins too long or mix them too strong it can
cause the birds to get diarrhea, but it won’t hurt them for short periods of
time and will clear up quickly when put back on plain water.
Both of these liquid products we use can be mixed in with the
Ronsivet at
any time of the year for Canker, Guardia or Cochlosomosis
treatment.
Again the water should be changed every day or every other day depending
on how many birds are using the watering system, how dirty the water gets and
what time of the year it is if your birds are housed outside.
For example if it’s February and your birds are outside, the weather
should still be cool therefore you don’t have to worry about bacteria, molds
or algae forming in the water as much as in the warmer summer months.
Indoors clean your watering containers more often if not daily. Note:
Keep the serving dishes and water containers clean and maintain proper
loft hygiene at all times. The liquid vitamins we use are a potent highly concentrated liquid multi vitamin with iodine we have specially made for our birds to maintain beautiful “show quality feathers” year round. This product produces stunning results. You will love what it does for your birds! This product can be used on all birds to achieve the same impressive results with your bird’s feathers.
Both products should be mixed together:
Mixture rate is 2 tablespoon of feather glow per gallon of water and we
add 2 tablespoons of liquid
calcium
gluconate per gallon. This article is copyrighted 2006 for Frisky Finches and is not meant to be reprinted, replicated, or republished without our expressed written permission. Thank you.
Disclaimer: The author of this website is not a licensed veterinarian. The information and advise contained within is only offered as a basic introduction to the Gouldian Finch and comes from over 10 years personal experience breeding this species. Our success is also attributed to 30 years of accumulated avian knowledge breeding various other bird species, veterinary advise, research and discussions with other professional breeders. Thank you for visiting our website. We hope you will find it informative and helpful. General Information [Introduction] [Essentials] [Aviary Hygiene] [Canker & Protozoan Infection] [Pest Control] [Fostering] [Inbreeding] [Feather Loss] [12 Steps to Success] Shopping Pages - Assorted Bird & Finch Supplies [Seed & Feed] [Nutrition & Health Supplies] [Avian Medications] [Breeding Supplies] [Nesting Boxes] [Pest Control Supplies] [Books& Links] 12 Steps to Success Breeding the Lady Gouldian Finch [January] [February] [March] [April] [May] [June] [July] [August] [September] [October] [November] [December] [Home] [Gouldian Finch Pricing] [Shopping] [Information] [Payment & Shipping Policy] [Contact Us] |
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