I have a female zebra finch and she is the mother of one male zebra finch, who lives in the cage with his father. In the beginning, they were all one happy family, but I've noticed something very strange with her. One day I saw her on the floor of the cage, and her wings were away from her body, and her rump (back) feathers were gone! On top of that, I noticed that her son seems to find interest in his mother and has been chasing her. She is also very weak at flying now, as she likes to stay on floor. At times, her son would catch up to her, and get up on top of her and.. do the deed. I can tell she does not like it, as she always runs away when that happens. So far, I've separated the father and son from her, but I honestly do not know what is happening with her. At first, I thought it was egg binding because of her wings being spread out, but so far, nothing. She spent a week in the hospital cage, and she seems very active, it's just that she is having trouble flying...
Also, will the son ever get over the fact that his mother is not interested in bearing his children? I do not plan to keep the males in their own separate cage for long, but at the same time, I do not want their presence in the mixed cage to affect the female... I've removed all the nests in the cage, so maybe they will stop trying to mate with the mom? I don't know, I've thought long and hard about this, and the only other option to protect the female is to give away my zebras
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