[solved]Help Needed With My Gouldian Babies

I also posted this in breeding but I thought someone may see it here first.
I need help on this one.

My red head gouldian would not sleep in the nest last night. The babies are about 6 days old, I do not know the exact day of hatching, but when I checked the nest they looked maybe a day old.

I removed the male on Sunday,10/30/11 and she has been feeding and sitting until last night.

Questions:

Will the babies be ok during the night?, they are in a flight cage in my house, I have the heat set at 65 in the house, I also have a towel hanging behind and on the side of the nest. This morning when lights came on she went in to feed them and I heard the babies, will this work even if she is not sitting at night?

Any ideas why she would quit sitting, I heard her call to the male twice yesterday but she can't see him and he is in another room plus he did not call back.

Nothing has changed as far as food supply.

The black head is still sitting on her two babies and they are older, the male hardley goes in the nest the past few days, so she is probably on her own now.

I have a pair of societies in the same cage but they don't have a nest in there, after their last clutch I removed it. They don't go to the side of the cage where the gouldians nests are. How would I get the societies to take over if needed. Would I have to move the babies and their nest to the societies side in order to even get them to notice the babies? Would I have to take out the red head?

Would the black heads feed them even though their two babies are bigger?

I thought about putting the red head father back in but he doesn't sit in the nest at night, but he did sit during the day, or would this cause a bigger problem?

I just looked in my black heads nest and one of my societies is sitting in there!!!!!!!!!!!!! with the female!!!

The black head female just came out but the society is still in there.

The black head male is sitting on top of the red heads nest while she is inside. He just went in her nest but she chased him out.

Now another society went in and they are both sitting on the two babies. I need to get another cup of coffee...

My black head is trying to go in my red heads nest but the red head chased her out.

Why is the black head not chasing the society out?

Feels like I am in the Twilight Zone.

update

Society came out and BH mom went in and was feeding,

Mom comes out and Society goes back in.

Did I say

11/5/11

I spent most of the day and evening watching to see who was in the nest and if the babies were being fed.

The RH clutch is being fed by mom but she does not spend the night in the nest.

I am now more worried about the two BH babies as the society keeps going in and then the BH mom won't go in while the society is there, so I chase the society out and then mom will go in. The society does not feed the chicks only just sits, I tried to catch it but it caused such a uproar in the cage I stopped and it was getting late, today I am taking the societies out and hope the gouldians continue to take care of their babies. The BH male does not go in the nest at all he stopped before the societies started going in.

I know why the societies are going in the nest its because they don't have a nest of their own, I put a kleenex box in there for them but they avoid it and I don't have another wicker nest available besides I don't want them to breed for a while, that is why I took their old dirty nest out and threw it away.

I am surprised the gouldians are putting up with all this up roar, but maybe they are used to it. Their cage has always been in the busiest part of the house, people walking by, TV, etc. but they are calmer when I feed them than the other finches that are in another room which is quieter and they all panic when I go into their cage to feed.

11/6/11

I took out the societies and the male BH so the RH and BH females can take of their nests. The 4 orange cheeks are the only ones in there with them and they have never bothered them. Now I can stop checking the BH's nest to see if the societies are in there.

I left the societies in the cage with them from day one because I thought they may be needed in case the gouldians didn't take care of their babies and when I saw the one tossed baby on the floor I was glad I did, until everything started changing.

I did not know that a society would go into the nest while the gouldian hen was sitting in it and I wanted the BH to raise her own if she could. The male BH quit going in at all but he kept trying to go in the RH's nest. She only has two while the RH has five from what I can see when she is out, and the RH babies are very loud.

I also saw the BH go into the RH nest when the RH was eating and I thought that was odd. I thought each hen defended her nest from everyone. The RH had been chasing the others, even the BH male kept going in her nest, but when everyone one was moved out she didn't go after the BH when she entered her nest.

I didn't know that gouldians would go into anothers nest like the BH's were doing. The RH never went in their nests. I tried to search this on google but couldn't find the same situation as I had.

The one thing I did learn is in the future I will breed the gouldians by only having one pair in a cage by themselves.

I am glad no one was hurt from my learning curve.

I feel bad about the one tossed baby that had already passed, but it happened before all this started, and it was the same day I realized they both had hatchlings.

11/8/11 RH Babies 11 days old, BH 12 days old.

The gouldians babies are getting louder everyday and both females are doing a good job feeding.

I was sitting and watching them while drinking my coffee and out of curiosty started writing down the times that the RH mom went in the nest to feed:

6:23 AM -6:28

6:35

6:46

6:56

7:30

7:44

8:03

8:29

8:40

8:56

9:06

9:25

9:45 I stopped at this point.

That seems like a lot and it looks like the time in between feedings gets longer as the morning progresses. I think why she is feeding so often is that she has more mouths to feed and has to go out and get more food and then go back in order to make sure everyone is fed.

Its too bad the male couldn't be in there helping, but she chased him away so many times that he would hang on the side of the cage and thats when I removed him.

These are my first gouldian babies and that is why I am watching them so closely to make sure the babies survive.

The BH fed at 6:37, 7:44 and 8:30 she is feeding two and they are getting their pin feathers, hers are not so loud so I couldn't always tell after 8:30 when she was feeding.

I learned something today, keep my nose, eyes, fingers and head out of the nest.

One of the BH babies died, I already posted that I thought it was but wasn't sure without causing an uproar in their nest and the RH' nest.

But this is what I forgot about until this morning:

On 11/3, I checked the BH two babies while mom was eating and saw one of the babies up at the front of the basket instead of at the back with the other one. I did take a risk and put my hand in and put the baby in the back with the other one.

Now I wonder how it got to the front since the basket is big and I know it didn't get there by itself, so did the mom know it was dying and moved it to the front (which is the only way it could have gotten there) Because they did toss one that had died on 10/29.

If I would have left it in the front of the basket I wouldn't be worried about trying to get it out now because to do so will disrupt the whole cage including the RH nests, because I would have to take the basket completly out.

At the time I thought if I don't put it back she may not feed it and since she doesn't sit in the nest at night it would get to cold by itself.

So, do Finches really know best?

The Black Head Gouldian baby Fledged today.

Mom is a nervous wreck, she keeps following him around the bottom of the cage and keeps trying to feed him, but he wants to explore, not eat.:flower:

The Red Heads should fledge this weekend.





That is the only one that survivied out of three.

1/3/12

Just wanted to update,

All Six Redhead Gouldian juveniles are eating/drinking on their own.

The one BlackHead Gouldian juvenile is eating/drinking on his own.

The BH female is still stuck in her molt and the RH laid 6 eggs but no male is in the cage. I didn't want her to breed again so soon, since she just raised 6 babies by herself, so I left the male out until the babies were older and didn't think she would lay eggs, I know female societies do this but didn't expect that from Gouldians, I shouldnt have left a basket in the cage. I am just leaving the eggs so she won't keep laying. I am making sure she has plenty of calcium and protein and greens and for the BH's molt and also for the juveniles.

I have seen the juveniles on the perch do thier junping up and down towards each other, it looks like the beginning of the male courting dance.