HELP zebras all hating on each other.

[Ginene]

fhgwgads
I am glad to hear that all of the babies have fledged!!! Listen to Gary (ac12)...he was extremely helpful when I was dealing with zebra parent issues and hand feeding too!!! I am hoping to bring Dante a F040 in October, when we meet up at the NY bird show. So that leaves me with 1 F040, my bi-level cage (adapted small animal cage) and 2 black breeding cages. I may keep the 2 breeding cages for any future fledglings that I may have...Its an easy way to separate them by sex. So that leaves the F040 and bi-level cages. I will post pics of both so you can look at them and see what you like .

[Ginene]

fhgwgads
The cages on the right and the left are the F040's. They are standard flight cages 31"Wx20.5"Dx40"H (without the shelf and stand). The cage in the middle is my bi-level cage. The picture below allows you to see it the day I assembled it.

This cage is the small animal cage that I adapted into a bi-level. The entire thing is about 53"H. I also put it up on bed risers (6") to get the bottom cage up off of the floor. Each of the cages is 30"Wx18"Dx25"H. I used 30"W perches to support the tray in the middle of the cage. I also added small eye hooks to the underside of 2 support perches, so that I could hang a swing in the bottom cage too.

These last 2 pictures are from when my finches were in my family room (short lived because of my 2 cats ). I had a black breeding cage on top of this F040.

This is an F040 too.

And that's pretty much it. Both cages are in perfect condition. If you choose the bi-level one...I will walk you through assembly. You will just need to pick up some black zip ties and small eye hooks. I have new wood perches that were never used, which you can have to support the middle tray. Think about it...but no rush, as the babies have to be fully weaned before they can be separated from the parent/s.

[fhgwgads]

Ginene those cages are gorgeous! I would definitely love one or two.. Or the bi-level. So bad news is I came home to another missing tail!!!! ARGGGGHH. All babies are back with mama. Good news is they will all eat mashed eggs from my boyfriend, lol. I guess he finally wins the hand-feeding thing. Even mama eats from him! Hopefully they will eat in the morning to lighten the loss in her. All I have for them is eggs though.

[fhgwgads]

ac12 unfortunately I live in a studio and the best I can do is put her in the bathroom but it gets too hot. And they still hear each other. I plan to separate them once they are weaned. I am mainly worried about them being weaned. Or fed in general. I dint mine separating them I just don't want them to starve and she doesn't like to feed her children. It's a toss up better starving and being plucked and picked on.But hopefully she will step up to the plate and with them eating some food from me it will work out.


@chirpy I took some pictures but have to wait until I get my computer fixed to upload them!!

[chirpy]

Ginene It makes me want to buy my F040... stupid amazon bumped their prices up.. SUCH BULLIES MAN!

[fhgwgads]

So this morning had gone pretty smooth.. woke up to one hungry baby.. hand fed all of them eggs including mama.. now three of the babies are whining to be fed. Hopefully she will be able to keep up. I tried helping her as much as I could. Two of the babies are eating millet here and there. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? When more than one of then is crying for food she seems flustered. I just fed then all and they still want to be fed by her.

[debbie276]

I would offer soft foods like hard boiled eggs for the protein and ease of eating.

[fhgwgads]

debbie276 that is what I have been giving them.. I have been offering it in my hand and they will eat it from me.. but they won't go to the dish that has it. They only eat it if it comes to then, lol. As long as eggs are sufficient I will keep giving them that. I also let them takes droplets of water with vitamins from a syringe.

[ac12]

Go to a pet shop (Petsmart or similar) and pick up a container of hand feed food. I think that is a good food solution, plus you are also giving them water at the same time.

Yeah tough situation, you have to watch the plucking, as that can be serious. Put an incandescent lamp on the cage so they can go near it for warmth. That will help to make up for the body heat loss from lack of feathers. If they are really plucked, you may have to leave the lamp on 24x7 so they don't get too cold overnight.

Give them spray millet, that seems to be something that chick will eat first. At least it gets some food into them on their own.

It is hard for us to know when they are weaned, if they keep begging. I've seen chicks beg to be fed even if they can eat on their own. And they don't seem to know when they are full.

[fhgwgads]

ac12 have you ever had or heard of a parent feeding a baby and that baby feeding another? The oldest fledgling.. who came out a few days before the others did this.. at least twice. I am so confused!!! I am also surprised at the fact that the babies are eating from me. The first one fledged on the 14th, the second came out 2 days later but went back and came out on the 18th followed by the rest. So they have only been out a short time and already two are eating millet and all will eat eggs. I guess I am not used to it because my first baby had one eye and a crooked beak so he was a little slow to learn. These babies are also a lot more trusting than my first one was. He was the only baby to survive and was extremely skittish. I have heard of older birds like juveniles feeding babies but not a baby from the same clutch feeding another baby!!

[fhgwgads]

debbie276@chirpy@Ginene@ac12 so today mama had been doing better, babies were eating from me more readily. Mama is definitely getting a lot more comfortable with me. I put a small shallow Tupperware in with some bedding and they all climbed in and were adorably squeaking. For some reason mama kept going after one baby today. She didn't appear to be hurting it but rather putting it in it's place. I think it might have been jumping at her every time she went for food. I am a little worried about it. At night they have consistently had issues calming down and figuring out who is where on the perch and who's next to who. I took the old nest, cleared it out.. it was remarkably clean other than the hood which I cut off. I filled it with bedding and hung it at the top and picked up each baby placing it in the nest and mama soon followed. They immediately got comfy and went to sleep. All babies seem to be doing well... I just think it's the youngest one she was chasing after. I hope it doesn't develop into an issue.

[chirpy]

fhgwgads cool!!!! Glad to hear an update that's going well how are the babies? Ping pong? bet they are cute... Mine is like an alien LOL.

How is sparrow???
How is Shadow????????? Has he calmed down?

Btw, where is the name Kuri from? In Japanese it means chestnut and I thought that was really cute!

[fhgwgads]

chirpy I named her that on purpose because she's a tan color lol. They are doing well, all of them. Shadow is still a nervous boy but he was being a terrible husband and parent. And I am just concerned about the one baby she is chasing a bit. But they are all cute ping pongs! I got some pix and a video I am going to try to upload tomorrow!!

[ac12]

I've heard of chicks from one clutch feeding the chicks from the following clutch, but not a chick feeding their siblings in the same clutch.

Many of my birds have the same "issue" when the lights go off.
Who goes where on which perch?
They eventually work it out themselves.

[fhgwgads]

ac12 the only explanation I have is that this baby that is feeding the other fledged a few days before so maybe it is older by a bit. Other than that I was baffled! Maybe with there being four of them he just wanted them to shut up! Lol