FINCHforum

Hi, I noticed about 10 days ago that my Society had a bare bottom about the size of a dime and some feathers missing on the abdomen and going up under 1 wing. After reading JeanetteD's post about her finch, I immediately called an avian vet and was able to get her/him in within 3 days. The doctor found Trichomonas in the stool. I treated both birds (after seperating them) with Ridzol Powder for 3 days in their water. Both did fine and have never stopped eating or singing. I have kept them in 2 cages side by side and even cover (another attempt to discourage egg laying) them at night together so they can still see each other. The Society has begun to regrow her/his feathers.
Part of the reason I seperated them was to see if the Society was the one still producing eggs since now that there is no nesting material, they are just dropping eggs from the perch. I have never seen it happen, and I am curious who they belong to. The other reason was to see if there was feather plucking behavior going on that I had missed as well.

Now the questions!

1. The vet thought she could palpate an egg in the Society but there is no evidence of one being passed. How long can an egg remain inside before being passed?
2. The Zebra had layed 3 eggs in the first few days of seperation but not since. Could that mean the Society is male since the egg laying behavior has stopped suddenly?
3. I put the Society back in with the Zebra last night and as soon as they were on the same branch the Zebra pulled out 2 of the Society's feathers! Needless to say the Society was put back in the other cage. Does this mean they will always have to be seperated?

The Zebra was up for adoption alone at Petco when I bought it. Maybe for feather pulling??? The Society was also alone and up for adoption that day and was missing her long tail feathers. When I asked the clerk about it she said sometimes the birds are caught by their tails accidentally by inexperienced staff and that the feathers would regrow in 2 weeks. I don't think they were housed together at the store. I guess I won't know if the Society was plucking its own feathers or if it was human error. In time if she/he lives alone I guess I will find out!

Which leads to question #4: If I house them side by side, will they do ok emotionally? The Zebra has lost its chance for a cage mate, but if the Society outlives the Zebra, I would consider getting another buddy for it, preferably the same sex whatever that is!

On a side note, my 12 year old was looking at the large cage the Zebra was in and the tiny cage I have had the Society in since its trip to the vet and said that it wasn't fair that the 1 had a palace and the other one a hut! I told him if this was a permanent arrangement we would buy 2 cages of similar size and the large cage might work out fine for another set of finches OR something bigger!!! The possibilities are endless!

Opinions, Comments, or Stories?

I can only speak to question #3. Zebras can be mean little buggers, and territorial. Some zebra finches cannot be housed with other species, as the zebs will pick on the others.

Are the society's feathers all grown back? I read on a few sites that a plucked bird is prone to being picked on. So when you seperate it from the flock, you keep it seperate until all the feathers grow back. I would try to put them in the same cage again once the zeb is done laying eggs and the society is fully feathered. Shame to waste that big cage on one bird...and if it happens again, I'd exile the zeb.

I raised a clutch of zebs early this spring (well, the birds did most of the work) The females got adopted right away but the two that turned out to be males were kept with the parents until they fully moulted into their adult colors. Since all the birds seemed to be losing feathers, I didn't realize the father zebra was being plucked until he started looking like a vulture from the missing neck and back feathers. I removed the sons and was fearful his mate would continue to pick on him because he was so plucked. Luckily that didn't happen.

No Sally, the feathers are not grown in totally so that is something to consider down the road. As far as that big cage, I was out looking at lovebirds tonight (shhh, don't tell my husband!) while I ws looking for 2 smaller finch cages that could sit on my buffet in the dining room. The large cage has a nice stand and would be only 2 feet away so they could entertain one another. I also looked at finches but they did not look really well at the store I was at.

Hello KSColeman!

Thanks for the post. It answered a question that has been bugging me for some time. Where does one get this Ridzol powder? I've never heard of it, but over here, you can't get much on the shelves.

Trichomonas.. i'll read into that!

Jeannette