June
6. June – Continue the breeding regiment
Continue with the feather glow liquid vitamins and calcium in their drinking water. You may discontinue using the “Vetafarm Multivet” at this time or reduce to the daily dose.
About the 1st or 2nd week of June you should have babies starting to leave the nest boxes. The father Gouldian finch will continue to feed the babies after they leave the nesting box for another 3 to 4 weeks and the hens will go back to laying a new batch of eggs.
At this time we band all of our baby birds with plastic colored split bands, one on each leg to identify the year they were hatched and what parents or genetics they came from by using different colors for each family of birds. This is also how we make sure none of the birds presented to each other during flock breeding are related and eliminates any chance of inbreeding. All of our records are kept on Excel spread sheets that go back over 10 generations. We keep track of the birds head and breast colors, which the parents were and the year hatched. This way we can look back through generations to keep track of the genetics.
12 Steps to Success
Remember to stay out of the nesting boxes after the babies pin feathers start to develop (approximately after 2 weeks).
We have fount it best to band our baby bird’s right after they have left the nest. Should you not catch this event as it happens (meaning you missed the babies leaving the nest box) it’s usually easy to tell who the parents are by identifying by band color which father is feeding the babies.
Once in a while if more than one batch of babies leaves their nesting boxes together, both fathers will start to feed all the babies but if you watch closely they will separate to the correct fathers within a day or so and only feed their own offspring so you can then identify who the babies belong to and band them accordingly. The babies usually cannot fly very good right after leaving the nest boxes for about a week as they are learning to fly so they are easy to identify and catch for banding.
If you notice any of your adult birds getting sick at any time during the breeding season with the runs (diarrhea) or encounter babies dying in the nest or shortly after leaving the nest boxes your birds probably have Canker, Guardia or Cochlosomosis and you should put all your birds back on the Ronivet for 5 to 7 days. If after about 7 days this does clear up the problem but you see noticeable improvement, you may continue medicating your birds for up to 18 days straight.
If you do not start to see improvement in your birds after 7 days, the problem still exists and your baby birds continue to die, your birds probably have something other than Canker or Guardia and you should consult an avian veterinary for support. E-Coli, Salmonella or a host of other bacterial or viral infections could be the cause.
You can mix the Ronivet with the other feather glow liquid vitamins and calcium supplements being regularly administered to the birds. We usually mix a gallon of just the Ronivet solution without the vitamins and calcium to be administered to the birds during the 3 days a week they are supposed to be on plain water. Be sure to change the solutions in your water dispensers often to keep them clean.
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!