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Gouldians come in a variety of
colors. The most common are red
or black heads with purple breast
and green backs. As you try to
breed the rarer colors, you run into
more trouble such as infertile, or
unhealthy birds.

I raise my birds outdoors. In the
summer I use evaporative coolers
and misters. The coolers are
basically a fan with a wet sponge
in back of then. A pump keeps
the sponge wet. I live in the
Phoenix, Arizona area where the
temperature is above 100 degrees.
Cooling would not be needed in
most other climates.

In the Winters, the aviaries are
inclosed with plastic panels. I
allow some ventilation near the
bottom. I use electric oil filler
heaters turned on to the very
lowest settings. I use heat light
bulbs for the smaller areas. I allow
the temperature to get quite cold.
I want the birds to be hardy to
colder temperatures. I've had
aviaries get down into the 30's
with no problems.

I have no problems with my
gouldians raising their own babies.
I do colony breed. Because I have
so many aviaries, I keep related
birds in different areas to avoid
inbreeding.

My blue and yellow backed
gouldians do have higher incidents
of breeding problems.

We have hand raised gouldians.
They make very sweet, tame pets.

They have gone on to make good
parents despite being hand raised.
We have even had hand raised
gouldians help us raise other birds
other than gouldians. Our first hand
raised birds were a gouldian,
lavender and society. All three
shared in raising many abandon
finches of all kinds.

I have fostered (under zebra or
societies) Gouldians and later
studied their success as parents.
I have found it does not effect their
parenting skills.

I did accidentally inbreed
gouldians. (brother and sister) I
found they were weaker birds and
died at a young age.

Because I colony breed, I am not
able to stop young birds from
breeding. I have not found any
problems with allowing them to
breed at a very young age.

I have had very little trouble with
egg binding in birds. I believe this
is because they all get plenty of
exercise. (large flights) The few
birds that have become egg bound
seem to continue having this
problem throughout their lives.

home

We keep the babies with the
parents until they are six weeks
old. (3 weeks out of the nest) I
frequently sell them at this time,
and have no problems with them. I
read that they need to be with the
parents until they color out.
(around 6 months old) I have
found this not to be true.

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The rare variations of gouldians
are for the serious collector. They
are not as colorful as the common
colors. Even the most serious
collector can only aspire to own
many of these. Most of us have
not even see some of the colors
other than in pictures.

These rare, and expensive birds
are not for the beginner. They are
not as hardy or healthy as the
basic gouldians.

Debbie Myers owns more of the
rare gouldians than anyone I
know. Her hobby is to collect and
trace the genetics of these rare
gouldians. Make sure you also
see her set up under Friends
Aviaries. Debbie has been
generous to put together this
collection of pictures. Thanks Deb!
(The first picture below shows the
normal combinations.)