You may have heard that Gouldian finches are hard to keep in a home environment, but that isn't true. These birds can be very hardy and live long lives if given a good environment, a variety of foods and room to exercise. Some of my birds are now over 8 years old and are still in good condition. They are not as active as they once were, but are still in good feather condition and the males are still singing every day. I no longer allow them to breed. They are kept in a large flight which allows them a lot of room to fly.
The first thing to consider is the source of your birds. While I have heard wonderful success stories about birds purchased from a bird store, I recommend buying from a breeder. In a pet shop, birds have been exposed to a wide variety of other birds, pets and people. Exposure to birds from a variety of different sources may result in transmission of diseases. Few types of finches are seriously affected by air sac mites, but they can be deadly to Gouldian finches. Gouldians with air sac mites will not breed well and may end up infecting your entire flock. Treatment is costly once symptoms are seen and is often not successful. The affected bird will die or have severely restricted lung capacity.
The same issues are present for birds purchased at bird marts. While I'm sure everyone hopes that all the birds brought there are healthy, there are risks of spreading a disease in these situations. I attended one mart where a woman was pleading with people to buy her young birds. She explained that her policy was to never bring the birds back to her aviary for fear of spreading disease. I wondered about the risks she expected the purchaser of her birds to take under the same circumstances!
Because breeders must eliminate disease in their avairies, you will likely obtain healthy birds from them. You will also build a relationship with the actual breeder of your birds, who will generally be happy to answer specific questions about your birds. If you are concerned about whether the behavior of your birds is normal or might indicate an illness, the breeder can give you advice. Breeders also often have extensive records on each bird such as the actual age of the bird, colors of the parents and grandparents, likelihood of recessive genes present in the bird and advice about breeding specific birds to produce specific color variants. In addition, I've got records of which birds my clients have purchased and can suggest other birds to add to their aviary to avoid interbreeding, or to obtain certain colored birds from specific pairings.
The second thing to consider is quarantine of your birds from other birds in your home for at least 2 to 4 weeks. If your birds have been exposed to any disease, it should become obvious during that period. While your birds are quarantined, they should be in a separate room of your house away from your other birds. Always care for your other birds first and then care for the new birds. In that way you won't carry diseases to your older birds. This quarantine is especially important if the newly purchased birds have been exposed to a wide variety of birds such as at a pet store or a bird mart. I always quarantine, even if I purchase from another breeder. It's better to be safe than sorry.
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