Fighting again

[camorrow]

So yesterday the troublesome female of my Zebras, Dobby, really went after the other female, Winky, after ~2 weeks of happily coexisting in the new cage. Winky has feathers missing all across her chest (almost like a breast bar), and I pulled her out and put her in their old cage.

I've consistently had the impression that Snitch, the male, had bonded with Dobby. Those were the two that I saw sleeping together most of the time, staying near each other, etc. Snitch never acted aggressively with Winky, and they would spend some occasional time by each other, but no where near as often as he was with Dobby.

Today when I came home Winky was flying into the side of her cage closest to the other two and holding on with her feet repeatedly. Snitch, in the big cage, was doing similar acrobatics on his side, and both were singing non stop. Is it possible that I misread who the bonded pair was? Is it possible for a male to bond to both females?

I'm so frustrated at the moment with not being able to just go and get another male yet. I feel bad for Winky, as she seems depressed over by herself, but I also won't risk further injury by putting them back together.

[cindy]

I would have removed the aggressor....as long as the victim is not injured or bloody, if she is then pull the injured one.

[camorrow]

It was a sufficiently large area of feather-loss, from wing to wing across the chest, that I thought it might be good for her to have some time to recoup. There weren't any areas that were bleeding, but it looked bruised to me. I'm also not entirely certain, but it kind of looks like she has a minor crack in her beak. I don't know how likely that is to happen in a fight.

[Stuart whiting]

camorrow Hi there, I'm inclined to agree with cindy here that you ideally need to remove the aggressive bird and keep separate,

This is one of the biggest problems with zebras, I'd never leave em to play happy party's and families as they are always like little kids squabbling

[camorrow]

I pulled Winky out again last night and while she still looks like crap, featherless and all, she seems to be well. No open wounds or anything. Her beak does look either cracked or scratched. If that's the case, is there any concern about her being able to hull seeds like she needs to? I'd put up millet spray when I first moved her into the smaller cage, thinking she'd be more likely to eat that if she was really stressed. She's mainly just eaten that for 36 hours, so I pulled it out last night to get her back on the seed.

If I reorder to the cages and pull Dobby, the aggressor, out and put Winky back with the male, is there any concern about her being able to fly adequately up and down with the feather loss under her wings? The bigger cage has a lot more height to it than the small one, which would require her to move around a lot more and it's not just "hopping" distance.

[w.l.]

For once I disagree with the previous comments.
If in a trio one bird gets chased by another of the same sex, it is usually the one without a pair, so I think you read it right which two had paired up and removed the correct bird.
Also, it sounds like she is better off in that smaller cage recovering alone in peace for now. Of course zebras not being solitary birds she still longs for company and should eventually be given a mate. Zebras are not too picky about mates and usually any two of the opposite sex will form a pair if kept together.

[Zebrafincher]

Just to let you know, you can keep birds in separate cages (and as long as they can see and hear each other) and they should be fine. I have two male Zebra Cocks and I let them out in the back room together and they're fine. They DO bicker a little, but there's nothing more than an angry sound from time to time. They generally love eachother and hang out together in eachother's cages.

Good luck

Kind Regards

Zebra fincher

[Stuart whiting]

This is what I simply can't understand a lot of people seem to think that zebras are social birds and need to be kept in pairs,

It is a complete myth and false information.....This is utter rubbish.....

Zebra finches will actually do fine if kept separately and on there own,

Of all the serious breeders in uk and Europe that I've ever known have never ever had issues about this,

In fact it's actually better for when one does want to pair together and breed from the birds basically exactly the same way as one would with keeping and breeding canaries

It would be 100 % foolish to ever think that adding another cock bird to the equation will sought any problems of mixing together because I can assure anyone that with zebras this is definitely not the case , infact it often creates problems.

By all means yes anyone can have as many cock zebras as they obviously wish but you also need the cages to house singularly

Keeping hens together is normally nowhere near as bad as keeping cocks together but still need to be on yer guard and keep a close eye on em