FINCHforum

Hi all,

My zebra finches have just had a clutch (about 5 weeks old now!) and one of the three babies is clearly puny. I hope there's nothing wrong with him/her, but I see that the wee one is having difficulty flying, while the other siblings are getting along great.

I can get a photo of the mini finch; but here's what I *think* the problem might be:
the little one doesn't have a tail.
Mini finch can't fly upwards, and can only sort of plummet/break his/her fall to the bottom of the cage. Sadly, he/she can't sleep up on the perches with the siblings and parents, and has to stay all along on the floor of the cage.

I've looked to see if there's plucked feathers in the cage, and it doesn't seem to be the case. Has anyone ever heard of this before?
I'm not sure what I should do - I think they're still being fed by their parents, so I don't want to separate the mini finch just yet.

What would you do?

Thanks all!

I haven't had a finch without tail feathers yet, but one of my budgies has none. She can still fly around but also seems to have problems flying upwards sometimes.

I would give the little guy some time. If the others are not bothering him I wouldn't separate him. Just make sure he has access to water and food, and maybe you can put in some low perches for him. Depending on the cage size, maybe you can even put a wooden ladder in, slanted from the cage bottom to a higher perch, and maybe he'll figure out how to hop up the steps.

Also, make sure he gets eggfood and millet and maybe some vitamins...

Hiya.

I have had similar problems in the past. In mu last clutch I had a chicks, a runt, that wasn't able to fly. He just crawled on the bottom and tried to fly upwards but always crashed. But the problem there was his leg, that was weak, he had hurt it somehow. I hadfed him for a few days just to give him an extra boozt and now the leg is gotten all better and he perches and flies normally Though he is a bit smaller than his siblings.

In another clutch I had an aggressive mother that plucked the tail feathers of one of the young. He could fly and perch fine even without the tail.

Try to examine the birds and see if there is some other problem than the missing tail, the wings or legs not grabbing correctly. Also do you see feather buds showing that indicate new feather or is it totally bare?

Best of luck!