Lost two birds in the past week...

[abbylcadabby]

I have 3 zebra finches, 2 male and one female. The one male is the other two's father and I tried to add two Bronze wing Mannakins to the cage. I did this after first having them be separate for a period of time. Within one week both of the mannakins were dead but everyone appears to be in good health. I mean both of the mannakins appeared to be getting healthier since originally purchasing them and then I came home and one was dead but there were no signs of aggression.A few days later the other one was dead also with no signs of aggression. I mean they are in a decent size cage (30wx36hx12d) and I've had zebras for a few years and never have had issues like this before. I would like to have the a few more birds in the cage but am very hesitant now to do so. I know my cage isn't huge but I was hoping to have more than three. I guess my question is are zebras restricted to cages only with other zebras? Any suggestions are appreciated and thank you for your help in advance.

[finchmix22]

There are some individual zebras that may do alright with other zebras or other finches, but for the most part, they fight and are aggressive when there is more than a male/female pair to a cage. More room helps, but they'll fight over hens or perches etc. I would leave them as 3 and get a different cage if you want another type of finch. BWMs (bronze winged mannikins) are aggressive, despite their tiny size, so there may have been a fight or something, even though you did not seen signs of injury. Sorry you lost those two finches.

[abbylcadabby]

Thank you so much for the advice! I think I got a little overexcited with the new birds and think my cage is a lot bigger than it actually is. From now on I think I will be keeping species separate until I can get my aviary