FINCHforum

Well ive decided it's getting severe and it's my fault. After free flight,tahny always decides that her parents cages are best.i usually put her into her own cage,but today i was busy.thinking they would be ok for the day,i left.
What i came back to was a plucked lolita flying in fear away from her daughter.

My main issue now is,lux has been singing to tahny,and now they are in the same cage.i don't want mating to happen...ever.that's her father. Poor lolita's in the hospital cage and i have nowhere to keep tahny.
As for lolita,shes missing half her back feathers,her butt is naked,and at least 4 primary flights from each wing


What can i do to help her?

lolitas wing,other has same amounts of missing feathers

maybe tawny should go into the smaller cage, and Lolita back with lux in the big cage. if you can put your hospital lamp on the big cage so she can get the heat she needs, that should be a big help. lots of egg food for her, too.

or, what about a divider in the big cage to separate dad and daughter? I even once used a small hand towel clipped with clothespins to divide a cage when I wanted to separate my birds to catch one.

ugh, auto correct... that should be tahny...

It sounds like the daughter REALLY wants to breed/mate, and mom is in the way.

As I see it, right now you need a total of 3 cages.

I would separate the daughter.
Then put the plucked mother in a separate cage, so you can feed her egg, w/o feeding egg to the male. The egg food might stimulate him to want to mate, although he has probably already been stimulated.
Finally the male.

So cage 1 for the male,
cage 2 for his mate (until she has her feathers back in about 1-2 weeks)
cage 3 for the daughter.

The plucked hen needs LOTs of egg food, at least 2x a day.
And if you have it, "feather fast" or similar feather vitamins.

Do you have any idea who plucked the hen, the male or her daughter?
It could be either, but it sounds like it could be the daughter.
In which case, dad with mom, and daughter separate. But you could still have dad and mom mating.

Once the hen has her feathers back, you could put both F together, and keep the M separate. w/o the male in the cage to mate with, the aggression between the Fs may go down. But it might not. Always have to keep your eye on the zebras for aggression.

Both are plucking.Lux was doing small amounts of plucking, maybe two feathers a day but it got out of hand. There is NO doubt he did the butt plucking and neck plucking but with Tahny, i KNOW she was the one who pulled out the eight(or more so) flights. LUX HAS NEVER PLUCKED A FLIGHT FEATHER from any of anyone he has ever plucked! Even when he did minor plucking of the chicks, he never pulled a flight.

Lux cannot be completely separated from his hen. When Ivy died(his first love and mate, and by love i mean love. they ate together, sat on the same perch at all times, one moved then the other moved. almost simultaneously) He was depressed, he wouldn't make a peep. Almost stopped eating all together. so we quickly went to go get him a new girlfriend and he enjoyed her company.
But after the chicks the plucking has been constant but minor.

I can't separate, Lux and Tahny are in a medium bird cage(the small ones. maybe a foot and a half high wide ect) so there would not be much room. as for Lolita, i plan to move her to the sun room where it is more warm but not OUTSIDE(it is a breakfast room filled with windows but is in the house extends from the kitchen) it is warmer then the rest of the house and honestly, she could use it.
When she feathers in, i will introduce her to lux again but it's tahny i am worried about at this hour with breeding mode and all. i hope that lux does not pluck tahny...

If you don't want mating between Lux and Tawny, you will have to separate them. If they are together now, by morning they may have already mated. So tomorrow you will have to get Tawny out of there. And if Tawny lays any eggs, toss them. I agree with Gary, you need three cages right now.

Well, even if they did mate, the worst that could happen is that she lays eggs on the floor of the cage and you toss them. I know it sounds awful, but its nature as well. I don't have much experience, so this was just a thought. Hope things work out for ya.

Actually, I would almost bet that they mated already.
So if you find any eggs, you have to throw them away.

You really need 1 or 2 small travel cages in addition to what you have.

I have a bunch of the small travel cages
http://ladygouldian.com/node/138
I got them at the bird mart
I use them for hospital cages as well as temporary isolation cages.

This is what I would put mom into.
Then put the small cage next to dad, so he can be near her, yet not be able to pluck her while she is regrowing her plucked feathers.

And put daughter off in another room NOW, to break any bond that may have formed between dad and daughter. The longer you leave dad and daughter together, the more they will bond. And the harder it will be when you put mom back with dad, to have dad accept mom back.

But be aware that when you put dad and mom together, they can/will mate and have fertile eggs. And that will lead to chicks, unless you throw out the eggs.