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About Lady Gouldian Finches

Lady Gouldian finch outdoor aviary setup

Goulds in tree branchesMy personal opinion and most likely will help newbies seeking additional information before they start raising and breeding lady gouldian finches.  It is a major responsibility and you have to be ready to do extra work before going into this hobby.  It is easy to buy a bird but you will need to educate yourself first and know what they need and how to take care of them based on the type of breed of that particular bird in order to survive and live a happy life.

There are several breeders that claimed that Lady Gouldian finches are delicate and hard to take care of but that is not true with my experience.  My advice to everyone is to spend time to read articles on gouldians general information, feeding, breeding, health and deceases and how to take care on the web before you spend your money.  This hobby can get expensive as the average cost for a normal green gouldian male or female here in Los Angeles, California is around $50 dollars each and once you start with one pair you’ll be hooked and will want more of different color combination, mutation and the prices goes up.

Some breeder keeps their gouldians in a small cage and had worked for them specially if they are in the selective breeding style, while others built an aviary indoor or outdoor depending how much space or yard they can afford to spare for their birds and hobby. For me, the bigger the cage the better for any type of birds as they need to fly and get plenty of exercise and not confined in a tiny breeding cage.  I am very fortunate to have a yard to accommodate my awesome aviary and can’t be happy enough to always have a perfect weather here in Southern California for my gouldians finmches to enjoy.

Aviary_4

My first backyard aviary setup in the middle of the backyard with thermostat

Here you’ll see how my gouldians and outdoor aviary designs progress in time as my gouldians had multiplied and needs that extra space.  The picture above is my first outdoor aviary and it’s measured 6’wx6’lx6.5’h made of galvanized wire.  The roof is partially covered and also have some live plants and small fruit trees inside the aviary. This was late 2003 to 2004 with 3 pairs of black and red head normal lady gouldian finches.  By summer of 2005, I added more square footage to the aviary and it’s now 10’x10’x6.5h with water misters/fogger system for hot summer days and more live plants.  It is looking good and the birds love it.

Inside aviary

Live plants inside aviary and nest boxes

Colony setup is what I’ve always wanted. I never thought of raising them in a small holding cages side by side or on top of each other to breed. I don’t have time to do selective breeding and foster parenting as they don’t do that in the wild.  I left them alone to choose their mates and I don’t believed that they are mated for life.  I love to see them fly around and have room to play and I believed that it made them stronger and survived in an outdoor aviary.  Aviary set up for winter front panels slides out

My original setyup was at the middle of the backyard to show off my birds.  It wasn’t bad but I noticed that they are not producing as much I thought they would.  All sides are open where fresh air passes thru the cage until an elderly breeder gave me a tip that I should have at least one or two sides of the aviary is protected from an element “wind, rain, cats, squirrel, etc.  So I took his advice and now my new aviary location is built with the backside of our concrete wall fence and also had to face the morning sunrise which the birds will gather every morning.  I built the front 5 window panels and cut out for flexi-glass for the sun to get through in the morning.  All the window panels is designed to slide in and out for easy removal and back again when we have heavy rain and cold winter nights.  It only takes less than 5 minutes to remove all the panels and put it back in.

Lady Gouldian finch outdoor aviary setup – Redesigned to be longer and wider

Aviary front viewing and feeding section 2015

Aviary front viewing and feeding section 2015

This latest build is twice as deep as the one above with windows.  Instead of windows, I changed it to flexi-glass panels in order for sunlight to get in early in the morning and as you can see there are some birds in the front perches.  Below you’ll see that I have a divider with access door always open so they can fly on both sides of the aviary.  I used the smaller section when there’s a need to sell some stock as it’s easier to catch and with less stress to the birds.  It is also a place for the birds to hang out when I’m cleaning up the cage flooring and walls.

Aviary with entry access on both sections.

Aviary with entry access on both sections.