FINCHforum

Hi everyone, I was given a young male zebra finch (along with his two sisters) who has only just recently molted into adult plumage and separated from his parents. He was born and raised in a small indoor cage.

When I introduced him and his two sisters into my aviary where there were already six other birds, he straight away began terrorizing everyone. It was constant, he attacked everyone everywhere, chasing continually and making that "attacking" noise, even though he was in new surroundings. I was forced to remove him after I saw him grabbing one of my existing males by the wing and didn't let go, leaving him hanging there trying to get free.

He is now currently in isolation in a small indoor cage again for some "time out", where he can't hear or see the other birds. The aviary is now a lot more harmonious without him, and his two sisters have settled in perfectly and get along with everyone else.

My question is how long is long enough to give this young testosterone filled male an attitude readjustment in solitary confinement? A couple of days? A week? A month? He's just sitting there on his perch not moving or making any sounds so obviously he feels like he's in jail, but ideally I would like to reintroduce him into the aviary soon and be part of the flock. Should I try placing the cage inside the aviary for a while? The next steps towards total rehabilitation would be helpful! Thanks so much.

I had a similar issue in my flight cage. Everyone was getting along fine and then one of my male cordon blue's started bullying everyone in the cage. So I took him out. I had him in his own cage away from everyone for a couple weeks. Then I put him back in. That didn't work, he went to chasing everyone almost immediately (complete chaos). Then I waited a month, took everyone out of the cage, rearranged the whole cage and put everyone back in at the same time and sure enough, he started chasing everyone again. As soon as I took him out the cage was peaceful. So I had to take him back to where I got him and I got another one just like him and the cage has been peaceful ever since. I wish I could tell you I had luck with the separation, but I did not. Good luck though, I hope it works out for you.

Take care,

Jeanette

Well after two days in solitary confinement with no contact or sight of other birds, I brought his cage out side the aviary and he instantly went berserk. The birds inside started calling to him and he is flapping around in a fit. He seems to want to go back in the aviary. Thinking I will leave him in the cage this way for a bit, then try my luck releasing him back into society. See how it goes!!