Waxbillman
04-18-2006, 05:26 PM
My Experiences with the Red Avadavat
by Matthew Guest
i have had avadavats since 2002, but this is where the story really begins
I bought another pair of avadavats in February of 2004; this pair were good large birds they were housed in a planted 7’ by 5’ aviary with a pair each of black-crown waxbills and gold-breasted waxbills.
Their diet this time consisted of versilaga tropical finch with added Japanese millet and wild seeds, EMP eggfood, white skinned mini-mealworms, buffalo worms, red Anjou millet sprays and the usual cuttlefish and oyster shell grit.
The pair did not attempt to nest until mid July time, they constructed a rather messy nest out of hay and coconut fibre on the top of a cut conifer branch.
After many days of incubation (unsure of the exact dates because I do not carry out nest inspections) the chicks finally hatched and fledged at around 21 days. The 4 youngsters resembled gold-breast chicks but they were slightly larger and have a faint cream bar on the wing where the spots later develop.
The parents took the livefood but did not consume vast amounts, the seed and the eggfood been more important. The chicks soon began too gain independence and started off eating the millet sprays. After swapping with Ian Armstrong I made up 2 new pairs. By the time the chicks had gained independence the weather was too cool to allow further rounds so I shut them in their winter quarters.
In that year avadavats were becoming scarcer due to the fact that the Asian imports had been stopped, luckily after some searching I found that Alan at Dorset birds had a few pairs left so I managed to get a reasonable price for 7 pairs and also get him to bring them to Stafford sales. These pairs were distributed amongst members; I kept back a pair of myself.
During early March of 2005 we had a mild spell this got a pair of avadavats into breeding condition, despite being kept on their winter diets they still wanted to breed. I discovered that the pair had built a tatty nest on the floor of their indoor aviary underneath a large bostern fern. They incubated well for around 10 days but after that I decided to foster the eggs out because I did not want to provide any livefood or eggfood as this would set the others off wanting to breed. Two eggs hatched under the Bengalese, the first chick fledged after 21 days the 2nd followed the day after, they turned out to be a cock and a hen.
At the beginning of June I released both pairs of avadavats into separate 7’ by 5’ well planted and sheltered outdoor aviaries, though these aviaries were separated only by a panel of wire mesh, both pairs never really showed any aggression towards each other.
In this year I improved their diets further, I provided pro-bird’s waxbill/African finch mix which is by far the best mix I have come across, dry EMP eggfood which all my waxbills seem to love, pro-birds moist eggfood which most of my birds took, white-skinned mini-mealworms, buffalo worms, red Anjou and French yellow millet sprays (far better than that Chinese rubbish), cuttlefish bone, oyster shell grit as well as supplements to their water, I also provided orlux insect patee which out of my whole collection only one pair of waxbills seemed to eat. Small amounts of greenfood such as home grown little gem lettuce and cress were provided.
The first pair consisted of a 04 bred cock and an older hen that I had obtained from the same source as the breeding pair. Despite various different nesting receptacles provided high up both in the indoor and the outdoor aviary the pair decided to build their own nest. The nest was a dome built largely from coco-nut fibre with long plumes dried grass sticking out; it was lined with threads from Hessian sacks and animal hair.
I thought the pair had abandoned the nest so on the 2nd of July I stuck my fingers in the nest, to my surprise I felt 4 living chicks so I left the nest well alone. Unfortunately for what ever reason the cock bird kicked out 2 chicks in 2 days. The remaining 2 chicks fledged on the 25th of July they both turned out to be hens, a week later the pair started sitting in the same nest again. I left the chicks in the same aviary may be it was because the chicks were hens but the parents never showed any aggression towards them in fact they were still a very close knit family, amazingly the young hens helped with incubation. Unfortunately I decided to do some much needed work on the shed whilst I had the time which meant the family kept deserting the nest, luckily for me 2 eggs still hatched and was successfully reared both chicks turned out to be cocks. It is probably not recommended that chicks are left with their parents when a 2nd round is on the way but I got away with it, if there was the slightest signs of fighting I would have removed them.
I have read in certain books never to house gold-breasts with avadavats in the same flight because they will inbreed I have always kept them together and have never seen them pay any interest in each other what so ever, though I suppose it is possible especially if there is odd birds in their.
The pair in the 2nd aviary were the breeding pair I obtained at the start of 2004, the pair they were housed in a 7’ by 5’ outdoor aviary connected to a 6ft indoor aviary, they shared their flight with a pair each of black-crowned waxbills, gold-breasted waxbills and red-cheeked cordon bleu. At the start of the season I also had a pair of gold finches this was a mistake that I will never do again, though the gold finches were never aggressive towards my waxbills they were far too active, I removed the pair in July and peace was restored.
The cock did not come into his breeding plumage fully until September. The pair decided to utilise a large wicker nest basket they line it with coconut fibre, animal hair and strips of Hessian sacking. I first became aware of the pair have chicks on the 2nd of October, this was very late in the year as usually the weather turns bad and I shut them in their winter quarters. The weather did turn, the temperature dropped and we had heavy rain bad news for the 3 chicks that had fledged on the 17th of that month. By the morning there were 2 chicks dead so I shut all the birds in the indoor aviary.
I also had 2 pairs of avadavats in 3ft square cages, the nests were covered with artificial ivy and they were fed the same diet as the aviary birds. The first pair was both mid 04 bred so were not really mature enough to breed I did however let them have an attempt chicks were produced but late kicked out. The second pair of avadavats were from Dorset birds the male was a big beautiful sub-species and had far more white spots covering his body the red was more of a pink colour his song was also considerably different from all my other birds. That pair chose to build their own nest and had 3 rounds of chicks but again kicked them out at a few days old – needless to say that next year I will be fostering out all of the eggs from that pair.
Space does not permit me to have a huge bird room so outdoor aviaries are still very important to me, I would have had a better year if the birds had their own space inside but because I don’t I will stick to this method as I have had success in this still set up for 4 years now.
I will though continue to try and breed them in the few sizable cages I have, as it is probably the future and once you have found something that works the potential for better success of increased.
All in all avadavats are a real highlight in aviculture and if you can find any then I would certainly recommend you give them a shot, if you can breed gold-breasts then you should be able to breed these little beauties.
You can expect to pay between £30 and £45 a pair which I personally think is a fair price.
Since the ban on all Asian imports came into place many Asian birds have become scarce in aviculture and in the case of green avadavats more or less completely disappeared. Red avadavats have now disappeared from traders cages but there are still many people who have pairs and are working together to help stop this birds from vanishing. The future for this Asian finch with a bit of effort looks secure.
copyright: Matthew Guest 2005
by Matthew Guest
i have had avadavats since 2002, but this is where the story really begins
I bought another pair of avadavats in February of 2004; this pair were good large birds they were housed in a planted 7’ by 5’ aviary with a pair each of black-crown waxbills and gold-breasted waxbills.
Their diet this time consisted of versilaga tropical finch with added Japanese millet and wild seeds, EMP eggfood, white skinned mini-mealworms, buffalo worms, red Anjou millet sprays and the usual cuttlefish and oyster shell grit.
The pair did not attempt to nest until mid July time, they constructed a rather messy nest out of hay and coconut fibre on the top of a cut conifer branch.
After many days of incubation (unsure of the exact dates because I do not carry out nest inspections) the chicks finally hatched and fledged at around 21 days. The 4 youngsters resembled gold-breast chicks but they were slightly larger and have a faint cream bar on the wing where the spots later develop.
The parents took the livefood but did not consume vast amounts, the seed and the eggfood been more important. The chicks soon began too gain independence and started off eating the millet sprays. After swapping with Ian Armstrong I made up 2 new pairs. By the time the chicks had gained independence the weather was too cool to allow further rounds so I shut them in their winter quarters.
In that year avadavats were becoming scarcer due to the fact that the Asian imports had been stopped, luckily after some searching I found that Alan at Dorset birds had a few pairs left so I managed to get a reasonable price for 7 pairs and also get him to bring them to Stafford sales. These pairs were distributed amongst members; I kept back a pair of myself.
During early March of 2005 we had a mild spell this got a pair of avadavats into breeding condition, despite being kept on their winter diets they still wanted to breed. I discovered that the pair had built a tatty nest on the floor of their indoor aviary underneath a large bostern fern. They incubated well for around 10 days but after that I decided to foster the eggs out because I did not want to provide any livefood or eggfood as this would set the others off wanting to breed. Two eggs hatched under the Bengalese, the first chick fledged after 21 days the 2nd followed the day after, they turned out to be a cock and a hen.
At the beginning of June I released both pairs of avadavats into separate 7’ by 5’ well planted and sheltered outdoor aviaries, though these aviaries were separated only by a panel of wire mesh, both pairs never really showed any aggression towards each other.
In this year I improved their diets further, I provided pro-bird’s waxbill/African finch mix which is by far the best mix I have come across, dry EMP eggfood which all my waxbills seem to love, pro-birds moist eggfood which most of my birds took, white-skinned mini-mealworms, buffalo worms, red Anjou and French yellow millet sprays (far better than that Chinese rubbish), cuttlefish bone, oyster shell grit as well as supplements to their water, I also provided orlux insect patee which out of my whole collection only one pair of waxbills seemed to eat. Small amounts of greenfood such as home grown little gem lettuce and cress were provided.
The first pair consisted of a 04 bred cock and an older hen that I had obtained from the same source as the breeding pair. Despite various different nesting receptacles provided high up both in the indoor and the outdoor aviary the pair decided to build their own nest. The nest was a dome built largely from coco-nut fibre with long plumes dried grass sticking out; it was lined with threads from Hessian sacks and animal hair.
I thought the pair had abandoned the nest so on the 2nd of July I stuck my fingers in the nest, to my surprise I felt 4 living chicks so I left the nest well alone. Unfortunately for what ever reason the cock bird kicked out 2 chicks in 2 days. The remaining 2 chicks fledged on the 25th of July they both turned out to be hens, a week later the pair started sitting in the same nest again. I left the chicks in the same aviary may be it was because the chicks were hens but the parents never showed any aggression towards them in fact they were still a very close knit family, amazingly the young hens helped with incubation. Unfortunately I decided to do some much needed work on the shed whilst I had the time which meant the family kept deserting the nest, luckily for me 2 eggs still hatched and was successfully reared both chicks turned out to be cocks. It is probably not recommended that chicks are left with their parents when a 2nd round is on the way but I got away with it, if there was the slightest signs of fighting I would have removed them.
I have read in certain books never to house gold-breasts with avadavats in the same flight because they will inbreed I have always kept them together and have never seen them pay any interest in each other what so ever, though I suppose it is possible especially if there is odd birds in their.
The pair in the 2nd aviary were the breeding pair I obtained at the start of 2004, the pair they were housed in a 7’ by 5’ outdoor aviary connected to a 6ft indoor aviary, they shared their flight with a pair each of black-crowned waxbills, gold-breasted waxbills and red-cheeked cordon bleu. At the start of the season I also had a pair of gold finches this was a mistake that I will never do again, though the gold finches were never aggressive towards my waxbills they were far too active, I removed the pair in July and peace was restored.
The cock did not come into his breeding plumage fully until September. The pair decided to utilise a large wicker nest basket they line it with coconut fibre, animal hair and strips of Hessian sacking. I first became aware of the pair have chicks on the 2nd of October, this was very late in the year as usually the weather turns bad and I shut them in their winter quarters. The weather did turn, the temperature dropped and we had heavy rain bad news for the 3 chicks that had fledged on the 17th of that month. By the morning there were 2 chicks dead so I shut all the birds in the indoor aviary.
I also had 2 pairs of avadavats in 3ft square cages, the nests were covered with artificial ivy and they were fed the same diet as the aviary birds. The first pair was both mid 04 bred so were not really mature enough to breed I did however let them have an attempt chicks were produced but late kicked out. The second pair of avadavats were from Dorset birds the male was a big beautiful sub-species and had far more white spots covering his body the red was more of a pink colour his song was also considerably different from all my other birds. That pair chose to build their own nest and had 3 rounds of chicks but again kicked them out at a few days old – needless to say that next year I will be fostering out all of the eggs from that pair.
Space does not permit me to have a huge bird room so outdoor aviaries are still very important to me, I would have had a better year if the birds had their own space inside but because I don’t I will stick to this method as I have had success in this still set up for 4 years now.
I will though continue to try and breed them in the few sizable cages I have, as it is probably the future and once you have found something that works the potential for better success of increased.
All in all avadavats are a real highlight in aviculture and if you can find any then I would certainly recommend you give them a shot, if you can breed gold-breasts then you should be able to breed these little beauties.
You can expect to pay between £30 and £45 a pair which I personally think is a fair price.
Since the ban on all Asian imports came into place many Asian birds have become scarce in aviculture and in the case of green avadavats more or less completely disappeared. Red avadavats have now disappeared from traders cages but there are still many people who have pairs and are working together to help stop this birds from vanishing. The future for this Asian finch with a bit of effort looks secure.
copyright: Matthew Guest 2005