Finches dying

Feather13 · Post by **Feather13** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:53 am

I have a glass aviary that I bought about two months ago with about 18 finches (all zebra except for two which are society) and 3 parakeets. Everything seemed to be going fine except for a few finches began to bald after the move and now in the last 2 weeks 2 finches randomly died without any sign of being ill. I don't know what the cause of this could be, so any explanation is greatly appreciated.

Post by **Sally** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:58 am

What is the size of the aviary? Did all these birds come with the aviary, so they were getting along before? Sixteen Zebras together is a lot, unless they have plenty of room. Plucking is usually caused by either aggression/territorial issues or breeding issues (they want feathers to make a nest). With the two that died, were there signs that they had been attacked by another bird? Was the breastbone very prominent, indicating the bird wasn't eating? Lastly, everything I read says that parakeets and finches don't mix--hookbills can injure or kill finches. Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts. And welcome to the forum!

Ursula · Post by **Ursula** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:02 am

Welcome to the forum!

Can you give more information? How big is the aviary? What do you feed them? Do you see any fighting or aggression? Could it be environmental? (Too hot, too cold, fumes of any kind...)

Pictures might help too.

When you say parakeets I assume you mean budgies. I also keep them wih my finches but I have a very big walk-in aviary (11 by 11 feet) so there is lots of room. I don't have zebras though and I know they can be aggressive. Generally speaking it's not advisable to keep them together with finches, but as I said, for me it works too. Depends on the space and finch species IMHO.

Sally, you just beat me to some of my questions.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:03 am

Welcome to the forum, Feather13.

Sally pretty well said all I can think of except - if you fill in your Profile with your location, sometimes that helps get specfic answers and tell us the general environment of your birds such as current season and temperatures. Again, welcome!

cindy · Post by **cindy** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:21 am

You said the aviary is glass...do you have any type of night lighting? If they spook in the dark thay may have flown into the glass, hitting to hard and this may have led to they passing. In a panic they may have forgotten since it is clear the barrier was there. Were did you find them, center on the sides of the aviary?

Feather13 · Post by **Feather13** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 2:42 pm

I do leave a light on in a room next to the room they are in so that it's not pitch black, but it's still pretty dark. They budgies don't pay any attention to the finches and they all seem to stay in their own space. the birds that have been picked on only have feathers plucked along their backs and only one of the finches that died had plucked feathers. The other bird that died, a society finch, looked completely healthy without any plucked feathers or other injuries. I already had all of these birds before getting the class cage. The dimensions of the aviary are:
L= 56" W= 22" H=34"
This is larger than what they were living in before, and in the other cage they didn't seem to be picking on each other as much, so I not really sure if what is happening now is actually aggression or they are just lacking something that is causing certain birds to loose feathers. Before they were in a room where they could get sunlight and now they are downstairs in a room where there isn't sunlight, and it is a bit colder down there.
The two finches that died were not right near the edge, one of them was closer to the side of the cage and the other was towards the middle near their food.
To the question of what I feed them, I give them a mix of seed every day along with veggies.
I hope this answered all the questions...thanks for all the replies!

DanteD716 · Post by **DanteD716** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:12 pm

This is very small for that amount of birds.

I would say not more than 3 pairs of zebras in this cage. Zebras are aggressive, and territorial, and will kill each other. Budgies can and will also kill.

Feather13 · Post by **Feather13** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:34 pm

Yeah, there are a lot of birds. It's mostly because they had some babies over the summer and we weren't able to give them to anyone.

DanteD716 · Post by **DanteD716** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:31 pm

Do not feel bad. Do you have the old cage? If you do, move the hens in one cage, kerp the males in another. Also considers a cage for just the budgies. Atleast you can admit your problem

managermania · Post by **managermania** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:37 pm

Also, where are you located?

kheather · Post by **kheather** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:14 pm

yes do not despair...sometimes you gotta try things to learn but I agree perhaps thinning them out, or separating sexes good idea. I have 3 pairs zebras and they all live with other finches fine but two pair of them together and usually someone becomes the bully. Also if they are not getting any full spectrum lighting you may want to address that, make sure d-3 supplement as well. Also if you can spend some time observing maybe you can single out the culprits and just remove them if it turns out to be an aggression issue, sometimes I move birds around till I have just the right small groups that can live peacefully. You may not be wanting more cages but I think you will have no choice to do so with that many zebras...are there possibally babies that have grown up and are becoming sexually mature and plucking as some said to build nests? Welcome to the forum, you will get lots of friendly advice here!!

Feather13 · Post by **Feather13** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:57 pm

Thanks for all the help! I don't have the cage because we took it apart in order to make a "wall" so that we could hook perches to it without suction cupping them to the glass, so we wouldn't have any injuries. To the question of where I'm located...I'm in Colorado. I think there was a suggestion about light...? We did upgrade the lighting so that its like "natural sunlight" is this enough? I think I might observe them for another week and see what happens if I make a few changes, and if the balding finches seem to continue to be picked on I'll have to move a few. I have moved the picked on finches to other cages before and after a few weeks put them back in the cage. Usually they would then be totally fine for a few months before their feathers started disappearing again, and I think I know which finch is the bully. I really believe it's one of the summer babies that has become aggressive, but I'm not 100% sure so I'll have to keep an eye on her. Back to the cage...I might have other smaller cages that could house a few finches but not as many as the other cage could have, so I might end up just finding out who the bully is and remove that finch and a few others that he/she won't pick on...Will that most likely solve the problem or will another finch just take the place as "the bully?"

sorry for all the questions... thanks for all the advice that has been given!

DanteD716 · Post by **DanteD716** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:43 pm

Feather13 wrote:Thanks for all the help! I don't have the cage because we took it apart in order to make a "wall" so that we could hook perches to it without suction cupping them to the glass, so we wouldn't have any injuries. To the question of where I'm located...I'm in Colorado. I think there was a suggestion about light...? We did upgrade the lighting so that its like "natural sunlight" is this enough? I think I might observe them for another week and see what happens if I make a few changes, and if the balding finches seem to continue to be picked on I'll have to move a few. I have moved the picked on finches to other cages before and after a few weeks put them back in the cage. Usually they would then be totally fine for a few months before their feathers started disappearing again, and I think I know which finch is the bully. I really believe it's one of the summer babies that has become aggressive, but I'm not 100% sure so I'll have to keep an eye on her. Back to the cage...I might have other smaller cages that could house a few finches but not as many as the other cage could have, so I might end up just finding out who the bully is and remove that finch and a few others that he/she won't pick on...Will that most likely solve the problem or will another finch just take the place as "the bully?"
sorry for all the questions... thanks for all the advice that has been given!

if you removet the bully, another one may pop up. Escpecially with zebras. I think you should pull out all the hens.

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