Male or female mate???

[schilman63]

I had posted about a month ago, my mother finch was egg bound and died with two week old babies. The father finch took very good care of them and now they are healthy and happy boys. I am wondering if it is time to get the father bird a new mate. I wasnt sure wether to get a male or female bird for him. All of the offspring are boys (4 birds), I was hoping another boy finch will work, because I really dont need anymore birds, I will have six in a large cage after i get the mate. any advise on choosing a mate would be great thanks!!!!!

[L in Ontario]

A couple of point might help get the responses you are looking for:

1.) In your Profile - fill in your location so we can help with information specific to your location

2.) What kind of finches are you asking about? Are they Zebra finches?

[schilman63]

I have zebra finches I have also updated my profile

[L in Ontario]

I have zebra finches I have also updated my profile

I merged your separate posting into this first topic. Now other members can answer your question about Zebra finches here in one thread for you to find easily. Thanks for filling in your Profile!

[ac12]

Can be tricky.

A Female will likely result in more birds, sooner or later. And the parents could get aggressive to the juvenilles, because they want to mate and want the kids out of the way. The behavior depends on the individual bird.
Removing the nest as a breeding trigger will not always stop them from mating. While you could just remove any eggs she lays, laying egg takes a lot out of her. I had to separate my pair cuz she kept laying eggs; in the feed dish and from the perch (to crash to the cage floor).

A Male "could" result in aggression. Again it depends on the personality of the bird you get and if the father accepts him or not. I have 2 males that don't seem to get along. I have had others that bond like "best buddies."
But you will then have 6 males in one cage. Again it will depend on the personalities of all the birds if they will get along together. The personalities of the juvenilles may change as they grow up. I've seen a mellow chick become aggressive to one bird, and I can't figure out why. I've also seen where the sons would turn against their father.

If you don't want more birds, I would get a male. Then give it a week to see if they accept each other. If you get it from some place like Petsmart, you can return it if they don't get along with each other.

BTW how big is their cage?
You might have to separate the father and his new mate from the kids.

[Nagdabit]

While Zebras generally work best in pairs, in this scenario, you might not have to get any. I usually do not recommend leaving odd numbers in a cage together, but since they were all raised together, and they can't hear any females, they probably would be all right as is. That is if they are getting along fairly well now. Obviously there are going to be some squabbles, especially as the young males assert themselves.

We have three brothers that we put together temporarily and they've hardly given us a lick of trouble, which is borderline amazing since their temporary condition has turned into a year and a half.

Remember there are no guarantees. each Zebra has it's own unique and distinct personality. I just think that you might cause more problems introducing a "foreign" finch into an already established family unit (Five against one) rather than just leaving things be.

Just my opinion, for what it's worth

[ac12]

I know what you mean by a "foreign" bird.
I had 4 juvs, and they got along fine w each other.
But when I put a new juv into their cage, they aggressively chased her all over the cage. She took refuge in the food dish.

Strange thing about her was, when I put her on the other side of the wire divider so she would not be chased, she kept wanting to go back w the other 4 birds that chased her so much. Finally I gave up, and decided that if she REALLY wanted to be with them, then she has to deal with being chased.

Same thing happened later when I put her brother into the cage. They aggressively chased him around.

I finally sent the 2 boys and 1 girl to the pet shop. They were just too aggressive to the other birds.