Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Lady Gouldian Finch...Egg to Adult

We only have one pair of Lady Gouldians, received in trade for a pair of Rosy Bourkes. Photos below were taken from their first and second clutches. Then they quit brooding, so several eggs went into an incubator. Two hatched and were hand fed to adulthood. Those two are also shown below.






Mom and Dad Lady Gouldian finch, babies under them.













They liked the shredded paper best for nest material.


Their first clutch was five, second clutch was six.


Five not long from leaving the nest.





Fledged and healthy. Colors will change in time.
They all love the swing.




Out of the nest and eating on their own.
Still have spots at edges of their mouths.

These below were raised in an incubator and hand fed to adulthood.

These two hatched in an incubator. Photo taken shortly after hatching.
Homemade incubator. An old cockatiel nest box with a 25-watt
incandescent bulb for heat. A water dish is below screen.
Thermometer at back with another humidifier thermometer
in blue box with a shoe string into the water below.
Water bowl above screen was added just before hatching
to provide extra humidity.


Closer shot of two brand new babies. Other eggs weren't fertile.
Growing. Stuffed full of hand feeding formula
just as their parents would have stuffed them full.
Showing my feathers coming in.
An earlier shot before pin feathers started. We've gone
from looking like little worms to looking like little frogs.




A crop feeder would be a better device than an eye dropper
with these little guys, but I used what I had.


We're flying on our own, but love being friendly.

 
 
A hand feeding. We still sleep in a box at this stage, but
can fly really well. Continued hand feeding for two more weeks.

To learn more about hatching eggs, enter "incubation" into the search engine for previous posts on this subject.

Peace and Blessings.


 


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