Fussy Gouldian Finches

Any tips to get my Gouldian Finches to eat other foods apart from dry seed?

My zebra finches are little pigs and they will eat anything, but the Gouldians won't even try anything new.

All my finches get greens, home make egg food (from smashed up boiled egg with shell, green veg and chick crumble). They also have grit, oyster shell, egg shells, cuttlebone, charcoal. I add vitamins to the drinking water several times a week also. They are housed outdoors in a sunny aviary.

I offer all this to the Gouldians, but they only eat the seed! They do not even seem to be eating the grit or cuttlebone. They are rearing a batch of chicks at the moment and I am worried they are not getting good nutrition.

The male finch in particular is loosing feathers under his chin and around his neck.

Anyone know what there birds will like to eat or tips to get them to try the new foods?

I had a pair of Gouldians. Yes, they are fussier . I would just keep putting the food in there, and eventually they will either eat it or not. They are beautiful birds! I have a male red factor-canary with ruffled feathers on his head. We like him. He hates me. LOL

Thanks. Its amazing how different they are from the zebra finches. Those zebra finches eat ANYTHING.

The Gouldains won't even eat the cuttlebone, or grit - or if they do its very small amounts. The zebra finches get through lots of that too.

I have found that the gouldian finches I have love the steamed sweet corn still on the cob.

This is just a suggestion but you might want to separate them from the other finches because it might make them too nervous to investigate new things. Just a thought

I had this same issue.With my goulds I ended up putting their seed and the Green day Diet (www.http://gulfcoastfinches.com ) on a 6 inch plate.I mixed it up a little bit so the goulds would have to at least taste some of the other foods.I only did this for about 4-6 weeks before I was able to separate the foods again while having the goulds continue to eat the Green Day Diet.Now I have my first babies who have fledged and are eating Green day diet on their own

sinkorswim said:

I had this same issue.With my goulds I ended up putting their seed and the Green day Diet (www.http://gulfcoastfinches.com ) on a 6 inch plate.I mixed it up a little bit so the goulds would have to at least taste some of the other foods.I only did this for about 4-6 weeks before I was able to separate the foods again while having the goulds continue to eat the Green Day Diet.Now I have my first babies who have fledged and are eating Green day diet on their own

Click to expand...

I could not get that link to work. It sounds interesting.

My gouldains 2nd batch of chicks have just fledged. I am surprised how well they are doing despite their poor diet.

The did however only have 2 chicks this time (1 in 1st batch) each clutch - from 2 eggs. They kept scattering the other eggs on the floor! The babies are big, fat and healthy.

They are finally eating my home made egg food. They started to like the egg shells that were mixed in with it, and the egg and stuff was stuck to the shells so then gave up trying to wipe it all off and now eat a little. Today one was actually eating egg yolk on its own and another eating some green shredded lettuce!

The chicks are interested in this food also, so I hope they will learn to eat it, so when they have chicks of their own they will all like to eat these foods.

I have a couple more questions from you Gouldian Finch people....

1. Can I let them raise a 3rd batch of chicks? (as they have had only 3 chicks in total they don't seem tired).
2. Are they only having small batches of eggs and chicks because they have different head colours? Someone told me I should only mate birds of the same head colour. (I only have that one adult pair of a red head male and black head female).
3. How long will it take for the chicks to get the adult colours?
4. If they lay eggs on the cage floor again, can I use my zebra finches (in separate cage) to hatch and raise the chicks?

Thank you

sorry,that should be http://www.gulfcoastfinches.com then go and look for the Green Day Diet tab.
you DO NOT have to pair together birds with same head color,that would not affect your clutch size
The problem with using zebras as surrogate parents is that goulds develope slower.If you had even a single zebra chick in that nest it would quickly grow faster and louder than the goulds.If a single zebra chick was in the nest it could quickly out grow nest mates of the same age and you risk loosing a gould chick to a hungry zebra chick.Past that,I have heard that zebras can be used although societies are the preferred surrogate parents since societies wont turn any chicks away.

I have yellow breasted finches, the Gouldians, and then Society and I always said they eat like truck drivers and poop like maniacs!! I have a little male Gouldian that is the love of my life. I call him Mr. Pockets because he was bird napped last summer by the neighbors granddaughter!!!! She kept asking me before I left for work in the aft. if she could pet the birds (she was 6) and I just couldn't make her understand that they just weren't like other birds, sweet and friendly, but not really "petable". I left for work, and she sneaked back in there and stuffed him in her JEAN pocket. Her dad luckily saw the little red head sticking out and brought him home a couple of hours later. I just love this little guy and I was for sure he would keel over, but he was setting on his perch all bright eyed and happy. He has an injured wing from long ago too, when I got him, he was crippled, and has such a sweet positive little "go gettin" attitude I will be so sad when he passes. I see him eating greens, usually the first one down to get them. . .so it must be a choice. I have three others that are just drop dead gorgeous, but they do not mate. The other ones are constantly setting a nest. I gave 15 away last fall, because I had over 30+ and with the canary, parakeets (3) and all the finches, even the big aviary was a little crowded!!!