FINCHforum

The Lady Gouldian we just brought home now has such a beautiful song, then it was hopping up and down like a pogo stick looking at our original male Zebra.

Hey it's a male Goudian not a female as we thought! (jumping up and down like this is a sign of a male, correct?)

Could we expect the two to get along? The Lady Gouldian is a little bigger than our original Zebra.

They should be OK, especially if they are the only occupants of the cage. The Zebra may be smaller, but he will be pushier. As with any combination, you have to keep an eye on them.

Thanks very much Sally. I've been using some of your other posts for info. Thanks.

We're trying to provide a companion for our male Zebra after he recently lost his beloved mate. We were told the Gouldian was a she at first but it turned out to be a he (I saw him hopping and looking at the Zebra. He is a bit confused too!)

So we just put them together. No immediate attack but I think tomorrow morning will tell the story. If he's comes close to his same ole chirping and singing self, and the Gouldian continues singing like he has just started today, then we'll be happy, but we will be watching. We removed the nest as directed in other threads.

We had experience similar to yours about him pushing his original mate for eggs and she laid them in a nest or in the food dish regardless. She was pumping out the eggs and I think it pushed her somewhat. We didn't put it together completely until reading messages on the forum just now. We initially thought of replacing the Zebras fallen mate with another female, but we didn't want to do the "where to get rid of babies" or "throw out the eggs and maybe exhaust the female", so we thought we might as well stick with a male companion. Our only concern is compatible diet for both.

Do you know how the zebra would handle the extra Iodine needed by the Gouldian?

The Zebra is singing right now so hopefully all is well...

I haven't read any scientific articles explaining exactly why the Gouldians need more iodine, except for some thinking that their native conditions supply them with more iodine, so they are more dependent on it. Since they come from Australia originally, when I am dosing liquid iodine, I just give it to all my Australian finches--Stars, Owls, Zebras, Gouldians. I may be crazy, but I haven't seen any harm come to any of them with this practice.

The basic diet would be the same, except your Zebra will be much better about eating veggies and other treats than the Gouldian. Zebras are more cuddly birds, and Gouldians like to keep their distance, so the Gouldian may get tired of the Zebra trying to cozy up to him.