HEALTH

Hello Dr. Rob, I'm hoping you can help me out. About 2 years ago I began raising gouldian finches. I have 5 each males and females, none of which are related. The first year, eleven babies were successfully raised with no deaths (although less than half of the fertile eggs hatched while the majority died in the shell). However, something worse has happened this year. This past summer, only two of ten babies lived. The eight died about 35 - 40 days after hatching. Currently, I have three separate nests with gouldians babies and they are experiencing the same problems as those that died. Here are the symptoms - the babies don't leave the nest until around day 28 - 30. When they do, none stand on a perch, but instead go to the floor of the cage and most seem to have a difficult time moving or standing on their right leg. Additional background information - The birds affected now are all from different parents from the ones that died this past summer. The nests are in three separate cages in three separate areas. Also, all are being fostered by three pair of society finches. I provide seed, millet, Lafaber's premium diet food and Quiko egg food daily. The past three or four days I have also been mixing bee pollen and breeder's blend in the egg food. I have seen a slight improvement in a few babies since I started this (two of the nine babies sit on a perch for short periods of time). I also started mixing Amtyl in their water the past three days. For safe measure, I also applied Scatt to the societies a few months ago. Cages are cleaned regularly, temperature around 72 degrees, 6 - 8 hours of direct/indirect sunlight. Sorry for the rambling, I want to provide as much information as possible. Any suggestions what the problem could be and how I can cure the current babies and prevent this from happening with future babies? The most puzzling part is the common symptom of right leg problems. Thank you in advance for your help. If anyone else has any suggestions or experienced the same thing, please feel free to email me at grazzhoppa@aol.com Mike