Aggressive zebra - what do we do now?

[rjs]

We reintroduced Meep and Beep to the big cage a couple of weeks ago, and everything seemed to be going OK - a bit of chasing but mostly they seemed happy. They were snuggled up together when we left for work yesterday, but when we got back Beep was fluffed up in the bottom of the cage, missing a chunk of feathers, with blood smeared over the cage. We put him in the hospital cage with a heat pad to snuggle with but he passed last night.

We're really at a loss for what to do with Meep now - we can't keep him on his own as it would be cruel (he keeps calling for Beep all the time, despite the fact he basically killed him) but presumably if we get some more zebras as company he'll just attack them too. We don't have the space to have multiple cages.

As I see it we have three options:

* Keep Meep on his own, which as I said seems cruel.
* Find someone with an aviary of zebras who could take him in.
* Get some more zebra boys - there's probably room for 4 in the huge cage we bought - and hope a bigger group gets along better.

We're both really upset that this happened - we thought zebras were meant to be easy for beginners to look after...

[moonrise]

Sorry that happened.

Since you have a large cage, can you put a divider in it somehow? Then you could get him a friend, but the divider would keep them from harming each other.

Then, if you wanted to, you could try taking the divider out after a few weeks and see how they get along. If they don't, just put the divider back in.

[flrancho]

We have a male Pin-tailed Whydah that we had to separate from the rest of the flock because he was so aggressively attacking our other birds, we thought he was going to end up killing one of them.

My initial thoughts would be that you could possibly try another finch and see if things improved and maybe he was just incompatible with the other one. You could possibly even try a different species that he might feel less threatened or territorial against, while not being able to cross breed with. Just be prepared to separate birds if you have to. If he doesn't seem to get along with any other cage mates, it may be best to find him a new home and get another zebra that is less aggressive, or have something like Society finches, which are easy keepers as well, but much more docile and less aggressive than zebras.

If you decide to keep another species with your zebra, I would probably lean towards not doing a Society or a Gouldain. My zebras tortured my Gouldain to the point of death, and while they weren't as severe to my Societies, they routinely plucked all their tail feathers out, so that I had a bunch of tailless finches around.

Aside from hissing if someone gets too close to his nest where he sleeps at night, my male zebra gets along fine with everyone in my flight/ Though he somewhat harasses my Orange Cheek Waxbill by singing to it and following it around all the time (though he's never hurt it).... I think he's confused by the orange cheeks and might think its another zebra.

[ac12]

oooo sorry about loosing Beep
I have had 2 hens do similar to another hen, they essentially plucked it to death.

You can keep Meep alone. He will call for his buddy for a while, but will get over it. So don't worry about his feelings. One trick is to put a mirror in his cage so he "thinks" he has a buddy. But watch him. If he starts attacking the mirror, remove the mirror.

The problem with aggressive zebras is that you have to find another aggressive zebra to pair with it, or it will dominate the other bird. I have had same sex pairs that the dominate bird constantly plucked the other bird.

You want either 1,2 or 6 birds in the cage. The theory behind this is:
- Beyond 3 they quarrel and can pick on ONE bird.
- From 6 on it becomes hard to pick on just one bird as that bird can get lost in the rest of the birds. Of course 6 birds needs enough space.

I have used the divide the cage method several times. Usually it works, but sometimes it does not work.

Zebras are recommended for beginners because they are easy to take care and breed. What they don't consider is the temperment of that species. Some zebras are just plain nasty.

[Finchgirl]

Once Meep and Beep were introduced to the new cage, they probably began to fight over the new territories because they are both male. Meep became the dominant zebra and showed his dominance by beating Beep up You could get Meep a new female friend if you remove the nest from the cage (assuming you don't want baby zebras) and they would hopefully bond after some time with a divider in the cage to make sure that Meep doesn't attack his new friend. You could also keep male zebras as a colony, like ac12 stated. You can go over to the finch information center (there's a link on the left side of the screen) and use the cage calculator to make sure you have enough cage space to accomodate 6 or 6+ birds.