Little Zebra male with a nest fetish

[plantsandbirds]

Julian, my CFW Zebra has a nest fetish! My gosh - he is trying to build nests anywhere...the little monster. None of the other males are so motivated.

In the above photo he is in the smaller flight cage and shown with Nutmeg, the Spice finch. Now Julian is in the large flight with the big gang. Yesterday he was grabbing the newspaper bedding and yanking it as hard as he could. He puts any grasses or greens in the water dish, in the seed hoppers...sigh.

I put a round canary nest in a corner of the cage yesterday and now he's happily making that up. I figured that I would simply pull the nesting material out frequently and he can continue to do his thing.

I hope this isn't cruel......he certainly isn't stopping trying to build a nest without the little round nest in there. It is, however, stopping some of the grasses getting put in the seed hopper and water dish and also making him ease up on yanking the newspaper up from the floor of the cage.

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[FLAMEonfire]

I hope you have other nests in the cage with your birds! Even if you aren't into breeding your birds - You may not have anything to say about it. I was just telling another member who wants to have chicks that he doesn't have to worry about it - finches -Zebras - Societies - breed like rabbits!! They need nests, whether they are the round canary nests, or the bamboo closed finch nests, or little boxes made for nesting. You have to give them something! If you don't you will never have a clean cage again!! Put some nesting material in a bowl in the bottom of the cage and he will do the rest. He may stop once he has a nice soft place to sleep - for they like to sleep in the nest too. I do have to tell you - I have a male Zebra his name is Butterscotch, and he, like yours; is a master nest builder. He doesn't usually breed. But he does make a lot of nests. I put in a couple of extra nests just for him to play in - But he's happy - and every 2 weeks or so - if he hasn't picked a mate and isn't "sitting" with her, I do exactly what you said you were going to do. I pull the nests apart and clean them out. It doesn't just stop him from going wild with the nest building - but it keep them sanitized as well. So Good Luck to you and your Master Builder!! *Blaze*