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| Our Lady Gouldian finch youngsters who were hatched in an incubator and hand fed. Don't have their color yet. |
I'm sitting at the computer, lamenting that I can't get my new videos uploaded until I upgrade from Vista. My new Christmas camera and Vista don't communicate. Computer tech says that an upgrade to Windows 7 will be a better choice than Windows 8, which he says is a disappointment. So...no videos for a while longer. Have to find Windows 7 as he doesn't have a copy...think I've found one, but will take days to get here.
Meanwhile, as I sit at my desk, I hear little cheeps in the Lady Gouldian nest box. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that the finches raised two healthy clutches and then went sort of crazy. She kept laying multiple eggs, but not sitting on any. I put some in an incubator designed and built by my husband and actually hatched and hand raised two baby Lady Gouldian finches from eggs onward. They are now healthy youngsters, eating on their own and being sassy. They're pictured in the photo above.
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| First photo of baby Gouldian. Later switched to a dental pick to feed him when this small. |
I removed the nest box for many weeks, but when the hen again laid an egg on the floor I decided to give them the nest box back. It took a while, and she had ten eggs, more than she should have, but apparently she has some hatching. I'll check later, but don't want to disturb her right now. I suspect that they are in the process of hatching as I sit here.
Her two clutches last year were of five and six babies. All eggs in a clutch hatched on the same day, so I expect that these will too. I don't expect to see all ten hatch, however!
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| Lady Gouldians...a clutch from Spring, 2012. |
Peace and Blessings.
I would highly recommend removing the nest box after this clutch for at least 6-8 months and letting them molt. Removing eggfood and greens will shut down the gonads and allow them to rest, kick them into molting. Give more eggfood when molting, and they should be ready to breed again afterwards. It's not normal for her to lay this many eggs, but I fear for her health if it continues. Gouldians need to rest and molt in between breeding seasons and diet more than anything else is the driver of their life cycle.
ReplyDeleteAt Neversink7's past recommendation we removed the nest box and stopped anything except finch seed. However, she started laying eggs in the corner of the cage. I'm guilty of letting them have their box back. The real answer is one Neversink7 suggested several months ago and I didn't want to do, but now think it's the best option. For the hen's safety, we need to separate the pair, putting them in different cages until it's reasonable to allow them to breed again.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we won't separate them until either these babies or fledged, or we decide to hand feed them! Smile.
ReplyDelete