FINCHforum

My little fawn Zebra male gets winded very easily.I noticed this when I first got him but figured he was just stressed and scared.But even now when I do little things like cover the cage at night and he gets a bit frightened and has to fly about he will sit on his perch gaping.None of the others sit with their mouths wide open..He is not fluffed up, is active and is always singing to the female even though she is not interested.He is building his nest constantly too.So other then getting winded easily doesnt appear sick..Also I should mention he is smaller then all the other Zebras too, again I thought he was just a baby and would catch up with the others.
Since Im a noob, I am not sure whats normal for finches yet.

A picture will deffinetly halp!

It is really hard to say only by description. Even seeing a photo is not going to show if he is ill if like you say he is not puffed up. I would take him to an avian vet just to be sure. Could be like you say he is smaller....but get him checked to be sure.

Good luck and keep us posted on how he is.

Avian vets in middle of kansas are very few and far between.In fact our local vet will not even see our chickens.With birds we are pretty much on our own unless I drive for hours.
Im watching him and getting pic will be next to impossible, he doesnt do it that often, just on occasion and gets over it quickly enough.

It is not unusual to see a finch that is frightened or stressed sit with beak wide open, looking like they are gasping, with heart pounding. As long as he looks and acts normal the rest of the time, is eating and drinking well, I wouldn't worry about it for now. But I would try to keep the stressors down. As far as his size, he could have been the runt of the clutch and wasn't fed as well as the others. Usually, these runts catch up in size, but some of them stay smaller than the others for the rest of their lives.

Curious - why do you cover the cage at night?

I used to years ago but haven't covered any of my 30+ cages in years. No need, really. Just one less thing for them to get stressed out about.

Hi Sasha,

I am not a finch person only canaries so I would not be comfortable guessing what is wrong. That is the reason I suggested an avian vet.

Try the other suggestions and remove all stressors and see if that works. If he is eating, sleeping, playing normally then who knows If he remains in that condition, I would definitely make the drive and get him checked out. Good luck and I hope the little guy gets better.

L in O the reason I cover is because they are in the corner of the livingroom and We get up very early during the week.I cover all the birds. Its just something Ive always done.Lets us sleep in on the weekends too.
The little bird that is gaping is also very noisy, constantly singing all day long to the female, and he has a louder, squeekier call then the normal Zebra male we have.