Mommy zebra plucking daddys feathers

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I have a zebra pair with babies in the nest . The babies are about one and a half weeks old. Mommy zebra has been plucking feathers from daddy zebra and putting them in the nest. There is nothing wrong with the nest. It is nice and cushy. Any ideas why mommy zebra is doing this?

[CandoAviary]

Sometimes they will do this for more nesting material but many times they do it because of the need for protein. She may be plucking to consume the protien within the quill. Are you feeding a nestling food or eggfood? Boiled eggs?

[ac12]

Mine were doing it in reverse, dad plucked moms back naked and was starting on her rump. I had to separate them so she would not get plucked completely naked.

The DIFFICULT thing was that the chicks had not feldged, so they still had to be fed.
I first separated the male (the plucker) from the hen (the pluckee) and the chicks. Figuring mom will take care of the chicks.
Problem...mom kept calling for her mate, and was ignoring her chicks.

I swapped them, putting dad w the chicks and mom separate to regrow her feathers. That worked, dad fed the nestlings.
But when the chicks fledged, he started plucking the chicks for feathers.

At that point I swapped the pair again, putting mom back w the chicks and separating dad. This time mom fed the chicks. And this is how they currently are. They should wean this week.


My guess is for some reason he (she in your case) decided that the nest needed to be lined with more stuff. And the only thing available is the feathers on his mate. Giving him feathers did not seem to reduce his plucking of her. In retrospect, I'm not sure if giving him feathers did not reinforce his desire for MORE feathers. And where does he get more feathers...from his mate. What is curious in my case was why he did not pluck his chicks until they fledged, since he plucked his mate inside the nest.

How many chicks are in the nest?
Maybe mom or dad can take care of the chicks by him/herself.

Try giving them eggs as Candace suggested, maybe that will stop the plucking. If not, then you may have to separate one of them, or the male will be pucked naked.

BTW is it the back feathers that are being plucked?

[star]

They are on birds are us soak seed with mike fidler complete soft food mixed in. There are 4 chicks in the nest.

When she was sitting on eggs she would come off several times a day to chase him all over the cage. Now she is plucking him. I feel bad for him.

They should have enough protein with the mike fidler soft food, but I will start adding boiled egg also. Then if she keeps plucking him I will take one of them out.

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Not sure which feathers she is plucking. I didn't catch her in the act . Just would hear a little ruckus and then see her with one of his feathers in her mouth. She would keep it in her mouth for a few minutes or take it in the nest and then come right back out.

[ac12]

You will soon see a bald spot on him. They seem to pluck from the same place.

Interesting.
I had a female gouldian that would AGRESSIVELY chase her mate once she laid her complete clutch. She never caught him. But when I removed him from the cage...she was spending time looking and calling for him, and not sitting on her eggs.

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I see it must be the back of the neck where she plucked feathers. I put a littlle mike fidler soft food in a separate dish and they went nuts for it. It is also mixed in the soak seed.

She still plucked a feather. I put a little more nesting material in the cage. Mommy started right in adding to the nest. I am watching to make sure the babies do not get covered in nesting material. So far so good.

I am adding egg today too just to be sure they are getting enough. I do know the mf soft food is high in protein.

Thanks for your help!!!