FINCHforum

Hi all,

Up until a few months ago, I had 4 finches. Three are male zebra finches which I initially bought (I know, I should've bought 2 but I felt sorry for leaving the 3rd behind). The other was a female bengalese (who I bought to keep the single male company after I had to separate him from the other two). Sadly, the female had to be put down, due to a nasty tumour.

Eventually I realised I had to separate my two males as Titan (one of my greys) was not only feather plucking but also mercilessly chasing - this was odd because for a long time it was Io (his white cage mate) who did all the chasing, which was not as much and Io rarely caught Titan anyway. They'd been in the same cage for 3 years and I hadn't seen so much trouble until after Callisto passed.

So Io is now in a much larger cage, and is sharing with Ganymede (my other grey) in much the same way as before (some chasing, but Gany is too fast to be caught). I can separate these two again if I need to as I have a spare cage (just not very much room in the house for it all, hence making the birds share).

The thing is, I now have to put a partition between the two cages as Titan is now making some very very strange shrieking noises whenever he sees the other two. It's definitely not a growl, nor is he making alarm calls, but it's a strangely pitched squawk. I'm sorry, I don't know how better to describe it He also hops constantly from one perch to the other without resting which worries me that he'll exhaust himself to pieces.

I feel like I have a few options - 1) separate them all permanently and try to find some space in my house to put them all (it's a very small house unfortunately), 2) get a new Bengalese female to keep the lonely male company (which may stop him squawking and hopping madly about), or 3) put one of them up for adoption (I really hate this option but will do it if it will give one of them a better life). I could also get a really really big cage, using that cage calculator you've got on your site, but again with Titan acting up with Io, I'm nervous about putting him in the same cage as the other two.

I don't suppose any one has a good idea of what I can do to resolve this? It's distressing to see my birds unhappy like this If you need more info, please let me know.

I'm thinking if you don't have the room and they really cannot get along - that I would put one up for adoption. Good luck with your decision.

Perhaps make two cages that stack on top of each other to save space and get a mate for the solo bird?

Whatever happens as you know finches shouldn't be kept alone.

Its a shame you aren't closer to here (York) as I would have happily adopted your solo bird in my aviary as happened with Zeb the rescue finch from East Midlands Rescue last month.

I have a couple that are in solitary confinement, due to bad behavior. They will call to the others, and sometimes shriek.
If they do not settle down, I get rid of the bad behaving birds. I do not have the time and space to rehabilitate them or keep them separate.

If you want to keep the 3 birds, get the solitary male a male zebra cagemate. But as you found out, birds have personalities. And he may or may not get along with the new bird. I have some that will buddy up together, others that sleep on opposite sides of the cage, and others that just do NOT get along.

Cage size also affects how they get along. Too small a cage and they could get aggressive to each other.

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments. Marvin, travelling to York would not be too far to help one of my silly boys have a good life - however I have a spare cage and I can separate them for now. I like the idea of stackable cages; not sure I have the skills to build one myself, but I'll certainly look into it.

I thought of getting the single grey one a companion, but a male companion would definitely be asking for trouble given how aggressive he's been lately. I'm tempted to look for another female bengalese since that worked well with the other grey (his first and only attempt to bully her was met with her raising herself to full height and giving him a stare - he never tried that again...). However I'm still wary of his new temperament. The last thing I want to do is introduce (however carefully) someone else that he's going to bully.

Thank you again for the advice, if you've got any more tips I'd love to hear it.

I have introduced birds together by putting them into a divided cage, with the divider in. That way they can see each other, but they cannot chase or fight. Then after a week or so, remove the divider. In your case I would leave the divider in for several weeks and WATCH how he behaves, and see if it becomes less aggressive over time.

A good sign is when they sit together on opposite sides of the divider, and try to preen (not pluck) each other thru the divider.

The couple times that I did that, the birds settled down and became buddies and in one case they bonded and mated. However, one could just as well remain aggressive and start to chase as soon as the divider is removed. But you just never know what will happen when you pull the divider out.

As for cages, BUY the cages.
I built 3 cages, and the time and cost added up so they were not any cheaper than buying the cages. I bought the next 5 cages rather than build them. These are the type that I bought.
http://www.countryfeathers.net/breeder-cages.html

Hi all,

There's some great advice there, thank you for that. Weirdly enough, I was going to separate the birds this week, but they've suddenly calmed down. My white and grey pair are suddenly coexisting, although they're probably never going to be preening buddies. The single grey has stopped shrieking, and when I maneuvered the cages so that one perch in each cage was as close as possible, all three were very happy to sit next to each other.

So there may be hope for them, but I'm keeping a close eye on them all for now.