Zebra Finch Behavior

[Sir Bubbles]

I've had my first Zebra Finch, Melody, for about 10 months now. As far as I can tell, she's never had any health issues. However, I've been curious about her behavior. All throughout having her she tends to go into these periods which I've always assumed are a part of her " nesting behavior. " By this I mean that it typically goes hand in hand with when she starts laying eggs every now and then. The behavior typically consists of her spending a LOT of time on her perch, this one particular spot that has multiple sticks crossing over each other. Typically she seems to prefer this area to any other place in her cage though. However, when she gets into this mood, she's pretty much always up there with the exception of occasionally getting up to eat, drink, and bathe.

Along with this, she doesn't seem to eat very much of the food that I give to her ( excluding the bird seed. ) Normally she goes nuts for lettuce, but lately she only seems to have a few bites and then leaves the rest. This could be because I've been giving her spinach instead, and I might need to switch back to the lettuce that she's used to. I suspect that she either doesn't like it, or isn't working up much of an appetite from sitting around all day.

She also has BIG poops when she gets like this too. I think this is because she isn't moving around very much and kinda just sits on it until she finally gets up and feels the need to go.

All in all, she doesn't seem sick, but she isn't really laying much eggs either, maybe one every few days. This behavior has been going on for nearly two weeks I'd say, which is a bit longer than normal. Usually it lasts a week, more or less, and happens once or twice a month.

I often wonder if she's feeling emotional. She's lost two of her friends in the span of a month and has had to experience being alone for a week straight both times. But when I brought home two new Zebes a few weeks ago she was obviously pretty excited and happy about it. I don't know if birds can really feel emotion on the same level that we do, but I'm certain that during those periods she was at least lonely.

She has a toy, multiple perches to hop around on, food, friends, a warm environment, and all the love that I can give her, so I hope she isn't feeling depressed or something. What do you guys think? Do your birds get like this too? Or are they pretty much active and chirping 24/7?

[cindy]

Sounds like a couple of things...she is going into breeding mod and she sounds depressed. Zebras, finches are flock birds....she is likely lonely and depressed. Can you get her a friend of her own species, another hen if you do not want offspring.

[Sir Bubbles]

I have two other Zebra Finches in a separate cage right next to hers. The two other birds peep with each other all day, and so did Melody for a while, but then she stopped and went into this mood. Does she need someone IN her cage with her as well?

My dad and I are planning to build them all an aviary this spring so they can have more room in addition to being in the same space together.