FINCHforum

Wondering if I can house an odd number of Societies in one cage or should it be an even number and I want all males...

Societies do fine in pairs, trios, quartets, and as large a flock as you'd like and will probably never fight unless you introduce a new individual into the cage of a breeding group. Societies are so laid back, and their pair bonds so loose, they don't pick on the odd guy out in trio settings like zebras do, everyone is just a friend to everyone.

If they are all males, you can house them in odd numbers, but they do better in even groups. Sometimes, the third guy is the odd man out. If there are Society hens nearby, they'll pluck each other for feathers to make a nest, so I just give them some Emu feathers and coco fiber to reduce their need for their own feathers. LOL. My two chocolate pied Society hens plucked one fawn pied hen, so I moved her into another cage. There were two choc pieds and one fawn hen. I probably could put her back in the cage with another fawn hen to reduce the territorial picking on the fawn colors. Society'e have been known to ignore fawn or light colored hatchlings too, unless the whole clutch is fawn/light. There must be some instinct to weed out potential mutations or weak babies? I think.

Interesting Deborah
I noticed that same behavior with zebras.
The mother (usually it is her) will start to pick on the pied or white fledgling. Sometimes to a point where I have to separate them, dad taking care of the pied/white, and mom the others.
I've seen this repeated several times by different birds, so there has to be something behind it.

I have an odd number of societies (7) housed in a large flight. They all get along quite well. The only "odd man out" is my Green Singer juvenile. They are SUPER accepting/tolerant of him (or her), but at bedtime there is a large pile of societies in one spot and my GS juvie all alone sleeping on the highest perch. It use to make me sad...but truthfully its a peaceful flight, so I am a happy finch momma

finchmix22@ac12

So I have 2 chocolate pied males now and was thinking of getting 2 lighter colored Society males, would that create a problem having different colors?