Zebras Fighting

[hfinney]

Hello! I've had four male zebras in a cage for two days now. I have two grays and two CFWs. There is one CFW who won't stop harassing the other CFW. He leaves the two grays alone, but he is constantly chasing, plucking feathers, and beak fighting with the other CFW. So I have a few questions.

1. I know they're settling into their new cage with new cage mates, but do I need to separate these two before the one is seriously injured? Or will things sort themselves out? The aggression started yesterday afternoon and has been nearly constant all day today.

2. If I separate them, that will leave the bully alone by himself, and that will leave an odd number of males in the cage by themselves. How do I rectify those odd numbers? The other three seem to be bonding a bit, sitting on a perch together and preening one another while the bully sits elsewhere by himself. Will those three be ok by themselves in that odd numbered group?

3. If I get the bully into another cage, will he accept a different bird as a cagemate? Or will he always be a bully? Would he prefer a male or female? Can I stop them from breeding if I don't add a nest?

4. If I do not separate the bully, would adding two more males into my large cage help at all or cause more problems?

The cage is 31x21x60, and I have more perches than birds. I also have two feeding stations and two water dishes.

Lots of questions, and I appreciate your help. I adore these little guys, but I don't want anybody to get hurt.

[lem2bert]

hfinney

I do not know much about Zebras but a lot of the post I read about them is the same problem you are having. There are a lot of members that have them that will most like have a better answer for you, but if he is hurting another bird I would take him out for now. Good luck ...

[Fraza]

hfinney it is better to have zebras in odd numbers so they don’t get territorial and want to be in pairs so in a cage of 3, 5 , 7

[hfinney]

Thanks y’all. I guess what I really need to know is this: will this bully settle down soon as everyone settles in their new space, or is he going to continue being a bully? I know I can’t ask you to predict the future, but just want some opinions from your experience. I don’t want to separate them prematurely if he’s going to cool off soon. But I also don’t want to wait too late and have this poor bird injured by this bully.

[Fraza]

hfinney the only way I have settled a bully is if I get a more dominant finch in there with it, not a bully one but one that stands it’s ground so when the bully starts on it it warns him

[hfinney]

Just to follow up, I've got good news! Peace reigns today in the zebra cage! I saw hardly any aggression amongst the four today. I guess they got things sorted out...for today anyways. They're all four sleeping next to one another on a perch right now. Hooray!

[ac12]

hfinney it is better to have zebras in odd numbers so they don’t get territorial and want to be in pairs so in a cage of 3, 5 , 7

Definitely NOT 3 and maybe not 5.
With 3 birds, 2 will pair up and pick on the 3rd. I lost 2 hens this way.
The pair plucked the 3rd bird so badly that she eventually died.
After the 2nd time this happened, no more 3 bird zebra cages.

I had to once separate 2 new zebras (1M 1F) in a divided cage, so the F would not attack the M. After a couple weeks, where the F could see but not attack the M, the F calmed down enough that I could remove the divider.

So the first introduction can be rough, until the sort themselves out or calm down.

A funny story:
I had several VERY AGGRESSIVE zebras that I gave to a friend.
He put them with his quails, and I never saw those zebra so meek before. The quails were very peaceful but LARGER than the zebras, so their size must have intimidated the aggressive zebras into behaving.

[Fraza]

ac12 this is so I similoar my st org I had one Terri o W aggressive zebra she was nasty as hell like a devils child then what a surprise one of my society’s coco had enough and snapped at this zebra whilst on freeflight they was fighting in the air it was like two eagles eventually they stopped and ever since that day she became great and introduced her to the society cage with her pair and they lived happy and even preened each other sometimes crazy attitude sometims