FINCHforum

Hello, I'm new to this so please bare with me.
Around 3 months ago my mom and I bought 8 finches (2 society, 2 green headed mannikin, 2 spice, 1 zebra and 1 waxbill).
Well my mother used to have parakeets so she knows a little about them, and I know nothing. We were told that they would be all fine together. When we put them all in their big cage, they all broke off into their pairs and the zebra and waxbill coupled up and lived very harmoniously together. They all seemed fine and happy until a month ago we noticed both the society (1 male, 1 female) were kind of beaten up behind their necks.
That was the first sign of trouble.
After awhile they seemed to leave them alone (whoever was beating them up) and it went back to normal.
Yesterday, I heard all of the birds freaking out so I looked in and found the zebra dead on the floor of the cage. The waxbill was standing on one of the dowels looking down on him freaking out. When I examined the zebra there was nothing wrong with his body. So mom and I assumed that he flew into the cage or had a heart attack or something? I know that none of the birds beat him up because his body was fine.
But now all of my birds are breathing heavy and stressing out and the poor waxbill is the odd man out now that his buddy is gone. And I have noticed the societies are getting beaten up again, so someone must be being mean. What should I do? Do you have any advice you can give me? I'd love any input you can provide. I appreciate your time.

First off: How big is the cage and what kind of waxbill?
Probably more questions to come...

Welcome to the forum. Yes, That is a lot of birds so if you don't have a large enough cage they will pick and chase. The pairs might want to breed and if there isn't a nest and a lot of room there will be trouble. Never trust what a pet store tells you. They might know less than you do and their bottom line is to sell as many birds as they can, not the right care of the birds. I'm glad you asked for help. If you go to the information center there is a calculator that tells you how many birds fit into your size cage so please check it out. I'm not an expert but I'm sure others will be on to help you more. I would also suggest research, research, research. Start with the species part of the info. center after you check your finch to cage size ratio. Good luck and welcome!

The cage is 32"w 35"h 21"d. They told us our cage was ridiculously huge so we could have all of the finches that we were looking at in there (we fell in love with those
In the cage we have four nests, two bowls of water, two 8" long feeders, one small bowl full of oyster shells, one cuddle bone and 5 perches (two of which are branches with multiple twigs to perch on).

Uhmmm..I don't really know what kind of waxbill he is. He is grey with an orange face & beak.

Oh and we also give them two things of millet a day (they love that stuff!)

Should be an orange cheek waxbill.

About the size: Sounds like the space is not near big enough for that many birds, especially with nests in there. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Too many birds in a small area leads to several different issues/problems.

There are 7 in there and the calculator said to do 3-5. Oh crap.

Any ideas on the zebra finch? Do mysterious deaths happen very often with finches?

Don't use the height when calculating...just the length and width.
But anyways... I am not an expert, especially on illnesses. Hopefully another forum member can tell you what to look for in order to diagnose. I've found that finches are not as fragile as I thought when I started, but it is very tough to diagnose when deaths do occur (imo). I think stress plays a big roll.

If I were you, I would try to separate them out and watch them pretty closely.

Yes sometimes they die. Could be many things. Too many in one cage, they might not let him eat enough, too much chasing can lead to stress. What's done is done. don't blame yourself- the pet store clerk led you to believe the cage was plenty big. Now it sounds like you need at least another cage and to do a lot of reading on the different species you have now and their care. Some species of finch need different food and care. You and your mom will do fine. Just keep reading and asking questions.

Btw- I am not familiar with a green headed mannikin. do you have any pics?

Also, I would go ahead and take the nests out too. until things get worked out. Nests stimulate breeding which can stimulate agression.

Well dang. Lots to think about. Thanks so much for all of your help!!

And--oops! I means bronze-winged hahahaha, they just have green heads so I always mess that up!!!

First, REMOVE the nest. As was said, nests can trigger mating/breeding behavior, which could turn passive birds aggressive.

Odd about your zebra as zebras are normally quite pushy and aggressive. He could have been the one plucking the societies.

Now that the zebra is dead, have the societies been plucked any more? In any rate, I would get another cage just for the societies, and feed them chopped up hardboiled egg. The protein in the egg will help them regrow their feathers. When their feathers have regrown, you can consider moving them back in or keeping them separate.

Try putting in another feeding station (food and water). Have all 3 food/water stations spread out in the cage. That way the dominant birds cannot "claim" all the food/water stations.

Also have at least 2 high perches at the SAME level. Birds will go for the highest perch to sleep, and I have seen aggressive behavior as birds "claim" their sleeping perch. Birds that are normally social become very anti-social chasing others off "their" perch. I put dividers on my high perch, so the bird cannot claim the entire perch for himself.

ac12 wrote: I put dividers on my high perch, so the bird cannot claim the entire perch for himself.

What do you use to divide them?

I've often thought of putting up some kind of divider on the perches but since they are natural wood branches I never could figure out how to do it. How do you do it?

I have bronze-winged, spice, orange cheeked, rccb, star, green singers and societies, plus other varied finches. The bronze-winged are aggressive and pushy with the bigger birds, despite their size and I had to move mine, as they chased and plucked feathers on my Societies. So, sounds like you definitely need two cages about the 3x3 size, at minimum. If I have a 2x2, I only keep one pair, for breeding, in that size cage. I have an indoor aviary flight cage for up to 6-8 finches, depending on their size. That cage is 6x3x4. Hope that helps.