First of all you need one male and one female, completely unrelated and preferably between 12 and 24 months old. Ask your breeder and insist to get genetic records of your birds before you buy them. Only non related birds should be chosen for breeding .The gouldian finch genes are weak to begin with and when you have related birds the genes are getting weaker and genetic diseases are very easy to occur so the offspring’s die the same day that they are born , during molt or before they become 1 year old adults.
A Male gouldian can be fertile for the entire duration of its life but females usually breed well only for the second and third year of their lives.
To calculate the results of your pair visit our "Gouldian Finch Genetic" page clicking the link.
It usually takes them a couple of months after fledging until the males start singing. But be aware of this: singing and breeding is far related!
A male can be fertile after 9 months and so can a female. So the earliest you want your male gouldians to breed is when they are 9 months old. If you mate them before that age you will get "clear" eggs if you are lucky, or the most common thing: your female will die.
For females younger than 9 months old a huge life threatening danger exists called: egg binding
Mainly egg binding is the case when an egg is crushed inside the body of a female bird. This causes infection and death is certain.
This is caused because inside the female gouldian finch body the calcium is used for the bones for the first 6-8 months and what is left is absorbed by the molting process. The eggs need calcium to be strong so most of the time they break because their cells are not strong enough to hold under the pressure of the body during the laying process. It worth’s to mention that a big flight cage ( more than 50X50X50 in ) can give the female gouldians the "work out" they need to have more elastic body and be able to get rid of (lay) eggs with not that strong cells.
If you artificially give your female gouldians calcium ( products like calciboost) you can reduce the risk of egg binding.
Also provide them with Niger ( black seeds that you can find at your local Walmart). Those seeds contain oils that prevent egg binding.
80 degrees and above room temperature is helping to prevent egg binding because the blood circulation is faster.
Once you expect your female gouldian to lay an egg and you see her puffed... on the bottom of the cage it is already too late most of the times.
In general puffed and sleepy gouldians should worry you because this means that they need vitamins and electrolytes ( NV Powder is a very good supplement but you can go for something 10 times cheaper at your local Tructor Supply Co . The product is called "Durvet Vitamins and electrolytes" and it as good as NV Powder)
Depending on your setup, put the bird preferably in her own cage, temperature 85degrees, with plenty of canary food, millet seed and millets sprouts on the bottom of the cage, not in a cup! Give her a sallow cup of water with NV powder and if the condition worsens give her "Terramycin" ( you can find it at your local Tructor Supply Co) . Keep her separate and add food daily, replace the water at least twice per day and give her the above mentioned medication for 7-10 days. After that put her in her own cage that should be as big as possible for at least 6 months. You can consider putting her in a cage with more females but no way near a male for at least half a year. If you put her to breed earlier than 6 months after an egg binding episode the most possible thing will be to egg bind again and finally die this time.
For the whole duration that you have a nest in the gouldian cage you should give your birds daily water vitamin supplements, cuttlebones, calcium and keep the bird room at 80 degrees temperature.
Fostering:
Gouldians are not always the best parents. You can foster using society finches but first have them checked by your VET for canker and other protozoal infections. Also have them checked for mites. This examination is usually done by your VET using a q-tip to collect liquids from the society finch mouth and examine it under the microscope. You can easily do it at home if you want to reduce the VET visits :)
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