Welcome to my site. I’ve been breeding Gouldian for many years and I found them to be very reliable and easy to breed. Some people might not agree with the way I keep my birds but this is what makes it interesting .By sharing information’s and ideas we can learn new things all the time. In most books dedicated to Gouldian finch they recommend not to expose the bird to lengthy period of time at below 10 degrees. As you can see my aviary is open with a fully closed roof. Here in Sydney, during winter, the temperature goes down to minus 2 occasionally and I don’t loose many young one. I tried always to keep my birds as close to nature as possible. The floor of the aviary is normal soil. There are plants where they can find shelter and also keeps it cooler in summer and warmer in winter, helped also by the roof that is timber with polycarbonate sheeting on top. Diet: The diet is very simple. I give my birds a mix of 2 parts of good finch mix with one part of canary mix. Also I give in different glass containers the three basic millets: French, Hungarian and Japanese. Because I also breed Siskins they have access to a mix of tonic mix with Niger and lettuce seed (black or white or both ).During the breeding season I prepare my own soft mix that consist of 2 cups of seed mix boiled in a microwave oven for 10 minutes, 4 hard boiled eggs (of witch I give only the yolk) and 4 egg biscuits The other thing I give to all my birds is vitamins that I dilute in water. Social Structure I found the Gouldian finch to be very outgoing, inquisitive and tolerant. That is the reason why I like them so much. My birds start their breeding in late December and I usually take the nesting boxes away in late June. The Gouldian finch is an ideal bird to keep in a mix collection of small to medium seed eaters. In order to obtain the best result in breeding, is important to keep the Gouldian in single pair or as a colony with a minimum of four pair(depending on the size of the aviary). Nest inspection is a must to remove any young chicks that might have died and also to ring them that I do at the sixth or seventh day. I found my birds to be very good parents. They lay an average of five to seven eggs with a fertility strike of 80%. I have had clutches of ten eggs (three times) with all eggs etching and twice all birds reaching maturity. Native Habitat and Colour Mutations The Gouldian finch is native of Northern Australia. In the wild there are two colour mutations: Normal and White breasted. Both come in three head colours: Black, red and Yellow (that is when a black headed bird is crossed with a red headed bird ). In the domesticated form there are many mutations. I have being able to develop a few mutations myself. !
My Birds
My Favorite Web sites
Angelfire Home Pages
Free Web Building Help
Angelfire HTML Library
htmlGEAR - free polls, guestbooks, and more!
