FINCHforum

I am beyond fuming right now.

Everyone was peaceful when I put everyone to bed in their cages.

I hung out for a while while they ate and then left for about 20 min to feed the dogs. I let them settle for a bit before lights out.

I returned to see a mother-daughter pair of zebras --- Ivy and her daughter Pippin --- attacking another hen, poor Juliette!

Her mate Piper (Ivy's son and Pippin's brother) was beside himself with stress. Panting and trying to chase Ivy and Pippin (but didn't seem to understand that he needed to get between them and Juliette rather than just chasing the attackers.)

It was awful to watch. Of course I'm clapping and spraying them with a water bottle, but to no avail. (Perhaps that's a problem of taming your birds....clapping and close proximity doesn't give them pause.)
They continued to try to attack her as I went to get her out of there!!

The damage is pretty bad:

Errr...I can't even look at that photo without getting steamed.

<--- pretend that guy is the emoticon with steam coming out of his ears until his face reddens and his head explodes. That's me.

The bleeding has stopped, so that's good.

I have NO IDEA what got into these little wenches!

I'm so freakin' upset with them right now!!

In my years of owning birds --- including perhaps 100+ zebras over the years --- I've never seen any real zebra aggression. A random nip here and there, but I've never, ever seen them draw blood.

It was totally unprovoked and this has been a harmonious cage for 6+ months!

I have no idea what got into them. These are birds who sleep together cuddled up every night and preen each other and have been nothing but harmonious.

I'm so upset.

I can't believe they did that to poor Juliette.

I hope she makes it.

I've given her a hospital cage with heat lamp, NV powder, Thrive on her food, and antibiotics since it was bite wounds.

Obviously she's not going back into that cage. I was meaning to rearrange the zebras anyways.

But please send your healing energies and prayers to poor Juliette.

My poor girl. She's such a good girl. So young and pretty and sweet. I can't believe they mauled her like that. Nasty little....well, you know what I want to say!

<-- That's Ivy.

<-- And that's Pippin.

Nasty little zebra twerps.

lovezebs Sheather

Oh my gosh the poor sweety. I can't believe they can cause that kind of damage. LM sending good healing vibes her way.

Trisha

Ouch.

Yeah, zebras can be very aggressive birds, especially the common strains. My Zach (tiny little gray pied) was the most horribly aggressive little twerp I'd ever seen, he had to be housed in solo most days (every now and then I'd feel bad and we'd try free fly again but he'd be good for a week or two at most before trying to kill someone). After he hit puberty he was a literal killer (he'd grab birds by the neck and shake them while growling). It just seemed an innate aspect of his personality and a genetic predisposition. My zebra family now share none of it and couldn't be nicer animals.

Possibly the two hens were attacking her in desire of her mate? Three hens and one male in a confined space seems potentially ripe for jealousy. I'm worried what the future holds for my four cocks and two hens now (so far, siblings are still all best friends, but they're still just kids..) but hopefully with the little babies in the latest clutch, I'll end up being able to have even pairs, even if they're related. Zebras can be very troublesome if they don't each have a mate, I've read.

She's in good hands with you nonetheless, few owners are anywhere near so knowledgeable.

MiaCarter

Poor little birdie.

I have seen Teddy and Timmy get pretty ugly at times, untill Luciano beat the crap out of one of them, the second one learned his lesson just by watching his brother get it. They can still be a bit nasty at times, but not nearly as bad as they used to be.

It's hard to say what sets them off at times, it could be anything really. When I hear a scuffle with a lot of beep-screams, I scream even louder. They stop in mid action and drop whom ever they are holding by the head, and stare at me with big eyes. Like WOW, that crazy giant can sure yell loud!

I hope your little girl heals.

I would not put her back in that cage, with those two feathered girl dogs. Once they go after someone like that, they tend to develop a real hate on for that individual for a long time, and will go after them again and again for a long time. I do believe that they hold a grudge.

~Elana~

OH MY GOODNESS the poor baby!!! I'm so AFRAID that my Melvin & Charlotte are going to do this to one of their fledges, last night they started getting REALLY nasty with them pecking and pecking and pecking them in their back!!! (they were laying in a seed cup, that is "Princess Charlottes" and they didn't like it so they started pecking at the fledges, (now mind you this is the same food cup that when they would get chased before they would jump in this cup and Charlotte would leave them alone, like she wanted them to go to bed) Now they are in it and get mauled!!! Ugh, it was awful...luckily no blood... but this is why I have been so worried about separating the fledges..... Anywy, your poor girl.. I hope she heals up ok...like Sheather said, she is lucky to be one of your birds!!! Hope all goes ok, and good luck with this babe, and the rearranging.

Thanks for the thoughts and well-wishes, everyone.

Juliette is hanging in there.

She seems okay, all considering.

She's eating and drinking. And she's trying to preen and clean herself up. She's got a LOT of work to do, as the base of the tail and tail was just drenched in blood.

She's alert. Not doing the "huddled-down and puffed up with closed eyes" thing that super sick birds seem to do. In fact, she's not right up against the heat lamp as a super sick bird would be. She's hanging out about halfway down the perch, so she doesn't seem to need a ton of heat.

She still has a faster than normal respiration rate and while she's not puffed up, she's holding her wings low. That's actually what made me realize she was hurt so badly, as I didn't see the blood at first.

I hope she makes it. She's such a little sweetie.

I'm going to keep her alone for at least a week to recover. She lost a lot of blood.

By the time she's recovered, her babies should be weaned or close to it. I'll move her into a new cage with them. (2 males and 1 female, I believe.)

My big worry is during free-fly. Obviously Juliette won't be participating for a little while. Hopefully that should be enough to keep them from getting into a rut where they're continually picking on her. But if Piper and Ivy can't behave, then they're not going to participate in free fly.

As for motivation for the attack, I have no idea.

Jealousy could certainly be the cause. Although I've never seen as much as a peck out of them. This foursome has always been very cuddly and bonded with each other. They're a group that hangs out together during free fly.

I will say that Ivy gets stressed out when I put her into her cage at night, as I separate her from her mate Molly Sue to prevent her from plucking him. So my best guess is that Ivy was stressed out over Molly Sue and perhaps Juliette did something to poke her with a stick.
And then Ivy went after her and Pippin joined in.

I just hope Juliette makes it.
I think she'll be okay as long as she doesn't get infected. I started antibiotics straight away so hopefully that should knock out anything that arises.

ETA - Thank goodness I didn't leave the eggs with her. If you recall, Juliette is the bio mom of the three zebra finch babies who are being raised by Sylvia (society) and Jackson (zebra). Can you imagine if this happened while 3 babies were in the cage? It would be a nightmare.

MiaCarter
Wishing her all the best, Mia.
Usually if they make it through the first 24 to 48 hours, then the odds are that she'll be alright. As long as she's eating and drinking, I think she'll be ok.

~Elana~

lnlovesorange

Hi Ellen.
I really don't like what's going on with your birds. I'm concerned that those babies are going to get hurt.

Do you by any chance have another cage, that you could put right up close to the cage they're all in? Maybe even wire the two cages together, as close as you can get it.

What I'm thinking of, is to get the two cages so close together, so that the parents could feed through the double bars if need be, but be unable to harm the youngsters.

My guys are already weaned, so your guys shouldn't be far behind. They are probably already eating and drinking on their own the majority of the time, so this would be just a precautionary measure, just in case they still need some extra feedings through the bars now and again.

That's the only thing I can think of, to keep these little guys from being injured.

~Elana~

lovezebs -- That's a good idea for lovesinorange

If they're all eating and drinking on their own, this may not be a bad idea. My only worry would be if the babies would actually be smart enough to stick their head through the bars?

MiaCarter

I think they would figure it quick enough if they're hungry, and the parents are right across the way, but I'm thinking, that they are probably almost completely weaned anyway by this time.

~Elana~

lovezebs - I bet you're right.
And if they don't seem to ''get it'' you could always put them back in with the parents. Worth a try, right?