Zebra Finch excitement and food

[SpazBunny]

Some general questions, might be ordinary situations but I'd just like your advice.

I've got two male Zebra Finches who have been very relaxed with each other since the death of the last female bird in the cage. I've got Sanchez and Shamar, Sanchez has become surprisingly hyperactive since I got him a few months ago, I figured he must have been adjusting to the move.

Sanchez (I'm almost positive) seems to have these fits in the morning when I open the curtain to their outdoor window, he makes raspy chirp sounds that are kind of like hissing, and he begins wagging his tail feathers almost as if they're vibrating. The two of them seem to be hopping around as if Shamar is being pursued by Sanchez. Is Sanchez fighting or trying to mate with him perhaps?

My other question may be silly, but I can't tell exactly how smart these birds are. I'm familiar with dogs being obsessed with food, and cats being snoops. But sometimes I feel like my birds are "squaking" rather than their usual beeps and chirps, and when I change their food and water, they both immediately go for it and stay quiet for a long time after. Do they have a tendency to give up on food in their dish before it's empty? Do they refuse to drink water that's been soiled? And are they aware that a large human figure dictates their food? I really feel like I should have read up on their behavior

[lovezebs]

SpazBunny

Welcome to the Forum fellow Canadian.

Regarding your Zebra boys:

Zebras, have all sorts of odd behaviors, so it's really difficult to say what's normal or not .

What sort of cage are they in? Do they have room to fly around?

You mention that they are mostly relaxed with each other (which is a good thing). The occasional chasing, I would say is pretty normal.

Regarding the food.... all of my birds are pigs too, lol. The minute fresh food comes around, everybody goes after it (even though they always have food available to them).

Fresh seeds
Greens
Hard boiled eggs
Spray millet .... and my birds turn into starving hyenas .

As to their intelligence..... that's a tough one. I find that some species appear to be smarter than others. And then within each specific species, there are individual birds who are more intelligent than others.

[SpazBunny]

SpazBunny

Welcome to the Forum fellow Canadian.

Regarding your Zebra boys:

Zebras, have all sorts of odd behaviors, so it's really difficult to say what's normal or not .

What sort of cage are they in? Do they have room to fly around?

Their cage isn't as big as it probably should be, since they mostly have room to simply hop around. I'm not sure of the actual dimensions but I'd assume 25ish inches high and maybe 16-18inches wide. It's got equal sides. It's a square, looking at it top-down. They make different noises and I'm not sure what they all mean, some are rare. Like the hissing and their squaking.

I don't know if you'd have some tips to serve them greens, they end up throwing the pieces of baby spinach into their water before they can actually eat a lot of it, no matter how small the pieces I give them.

[Sally]

That size cage is too small for finches, even though the pet shops sell them as finch cages (small bird = small cage). Finches actually need much larger cages than we would think, as their primary exercise should be flight. A cage that is 30 long x 18 deep x 18 tall would be a minimum for two Zebra finches. A too small cage will provoke territorial behavior such as chasing/plucking.