Can't we all just get along?

[Acelin_Wolf]

In my biggest flight cage (two combined white petco flight cages, about 60inches long) I have two zebras that are at WAR with each other. At least twice a day for ten minutes they harass each other. There's lots of finchy yelling and 'ow' sounds! They both instigate the fights! It's so frustrating because before I combined the cages they didn't hate each other at all. They just didn't care for each other either. Right now I have:

*1 24'' long flight: a cut-throat pair

*1 24'' long flight: a recovering plucked silverbill and society finch. I've seen the silverbill pluck the society finch once though. I've given him eggfood to see if this helps. Otherwise they just snuggle and get along.

*1 30'' long flight cage: zebra female pair that hate EVERYONE ELSE. Swan can't handle ANYONE near her Tweety girl.

*1 60'' long flight cage: 2 OCWB, 2 javas, 2 waring zebra females, 1 spice (she plucks the society finch that's in quarantine), & 2 societies


I have 1 spare 12'' cage and that's it. IDFK what to do! I just can't add another cage besides that. There's no room in this room! Lol. Anyone have suggestions? Otherwise I'm going to have to just separate one zebra into this tiny cage. :/ I feel like it's cruel. I wouldn't know who to stuff in it between the two.

[Acelin_Wolf]

Here's a pic of the cage that has the two waring zebras. It has 2 water dishes and at least three food bowls at all times. 7 perches. 2 swings. 8 plants.

[Musetta]

I sympathize; I feel like I am still trying to find the right cage/finch combos.

Why did you decide to combine the Petco cages? Was it just to give everyone more room, or do you have some new additions? Would it be possible to separate them again and put everyone back where they were? Probably not that simple; it never is!

[Nerien]

I fixed my zebra fighting issues with lots of plants. I mean LOTS of plants.

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24903

There are 8 zebras in my joined petco cages, 4 males, 4 females. Two, one male one female, are babies I bred (in a separate cage). Before that, I had 3 males, 3 females, and absolutely NO combination of any sex, number, pairing, etc, that was peaceful, twos, threes, six, whatever, nuthin' but trouble. So then I joined the two cages to make a really big one, and added lots of perches and plants. And then more plants. Enough plants for them to stake out their own turf and hide from each other when they want to. Looks like a flippin' jungle in there, but it works.

I also have multiple food and water and cuttle bone, etc, sources, so they don't have to share with someone they don't like.

And I tossed in lots of loose leaves and petals so that they can pretend to build nests without actually building nests. If they successfully pile some up in a perch somewhere, I pull them down and make them start over. Keeps them busy, so they don't worry about each other.

[ac12]

Zebras can be like that.
I had some that would ATTACK each other when in the same cage. It's like "I HATE YOU, AND I WILL KILL YOU !!!"
I went nuts shuffling birds around trying to find compatible pairings of zebras where they would be OK with each other. But sometimes the birds behavior changes. I had a couple pairs that got along fine...to a point, then one bird would suddenly turn on the other. One was killed (my favorite penguin ) and one I removed before it was injured. I had a couple cases of 3 bird cages, where the 3rd bird was picked on and died from being SEVERELY plucked.

I reached the end of my patience and cages with them and gave most of my zebras away. That was sad because I really like how the penguin zebras look. I just could not deal with their aggressiveness and the number of cages that I was using to keep them separated.

I'm down to 2 zebras, and of course, they can't be in the same cage or they will FIGHT

Interesting, about your zebras. My worst fighters were hens. And my most aggressive zebra ever was a hen. I had to get rid of her and ALL her chicks. It was like her aggressiveness was pass down to her chicks. sheeesh

[Musetta]

Nerien, I have just begun incorporating plants into my zebra cage. A few questions: do you use faux foliage? How do you clean it? Where do you get it from? And how do you hang/mount it within the cage so that the zebras don't just immediately yank it down?

[Ginene]

All 3 of my zebra pairs are housed in separate cages. Only 1 of the pairs can be with other finches, but they still have their bossy moments... .

[Nerien]

Mine is all fake foliage. Some are "silk" plants, really just cheap fake foliage from Walmart, dollar stores, wherever it is cheap. I just wash it, rinsing well, but beware, some is glued together with water-soluble glue, so don't soak it, and you have to let it dry so the glue dries out again.

Some are plastic plants, the zebras are really rough on the fabric leaves, shredding them like crazy (then I pull it out, trim the frayed stuff off, then give it back). Again, cheap plastic plants from cheap sources. Also, the reptile department in pet stores has some really great looking stuff. Generally, it is not cheap, but we have this one little chain petstore nearby that, while everything else is overpriced, is selling the plastic reptile cage plants at half of what they should.

Some of the plants are wired in. Most, I work from the outside and shove the leaves through the bars, leaving the stems running along the outside to secure them. Plastic hanging/vining stuff, I leave one section tucked over a bar or two on the top of the cage, then feed the rest down through, and hook the bottom leaf/branch set through the side of the cage or a perch or whatever, wherever, it needs to go. If they manage to pull it through and I can't secure it just by tucking, then it's nylon zip ties, or twist ties or something like that to anchor the ends.

Bird poop, once dry, rubs off both cloth and plastic leaves fairly easily. Wet paper towels rub them clean, also. If they get really bad, happen to have some leaves sitting right under a perch or something like that, I occasionally pull it out and wash in the sink, let dry, shove back in the cage.

Took some extra plants, stripped off all the leaves, and a cheap dollar store cloth flower lei, took it apart down to petals, and tossed them all in the bottom of the cage. Having loose stuff around means they don't work so hard to destroy the fixed stuff. When they manage to tuck all the loose stuff up among the other plants and perches, I pull it all down and make them start again. Keeps them busy.

Think zebras need us to start breeding them for temperament, not just color variations.

[wilkifam]

Why don't you just divide the cage they are in in half?

[Acelin_Wolf]

I think I'm going to try adding more plants and spreading out their food and water more. Thanks for the tips on where to get cheap fake ones! I buy mine from my work (petsmart) and they are EXPENSIVE. Lol.

Zebras are SO picky with cagemates! I had a female (Pie. She's the one in my avatar) that HATED zebra finches but ADORED society finches. She nested with them, ate with them, bathed with them, preened them, etc. xD

Also, I'm hesitant to separate them. There are 9 birds. How do I split them between 2 30'' cages? :/ I'd feel SO bad. The Javas look so cramped in a 30'' cage. Plus, the societies are having so much fun doing little flying acrobats in the 60'' cage lol. The zebras are nice to everyone but each other. It's driving me nuts! Right now they're squabbling over sleeping space. ><

[Ginene]

Acelin_Wolf
I am a Newbie myself, but I think 9 birds is pushing it for that size cage. Even if you could just take 1 of the female zebras out, you may find that things will improve. I find that zebras tend to target other zebras . I had a pair in with my Cut Throats and they did great. I currently have a pair in with my 5 male societies and they are all doing well (but this is my sweetest pair). I plan on putting a pair with my Shaft Tail pair too. They just don't seem to do well with their own kind. But it is all trial and error when finding the perfect balance.

[Acelin_Wolf]

I know 9 is much. So many finches, most of which I rescued despite that I had little room for them! But I have no more space for cages. Well...maybe one cage. But I would have to buy it. But I wouldn't know who to separate. Probably one of the zebras?

I put many more leaves and stuff to give them cover xD The zebras haven't fought since...but the scissor beak zebra now picks on a certain society. The society just hops away and ignores her. I love societies...I may have to remove Scissor to give them some space though.

I actually wanted to combine a third cage onto the two but IDK how that would work out.

[Zebrafincher]

I keep my three boys (canary, Starfinch and Zebrafinch) all separate in their own flight cages, but next to eachother to avoid having world war 3 every time I leave the room. I have them all out together but i have to keep an eye on them!

[Ginene]

I actually wanted to combine a third cage onto the two but IDK how that would work out.

This would probably be awesome, if you have a long enough shelf to accommodate it! I had my hubby hang a wire shelf in my bird room that is 10'Wx20"D that would easily hold it. The shelf ran me about $40 with all of the brackets at Home Depot. Plus, the wire shelf allows all of the feathers/seed casings/stuff to fall to the floor for easy vacuum clean-up.

[Acelin_Wolf]

I'm in love with the idea of combining all three. This is my new project! xD Time to rearrange the finch room! Hopefully that will help settle the cage of 9 finches down a bit!