FINCHforum

I feel just terrible - my female zebra finch looks like she lost a battle with the male. It looks like he's been pulling out her feathers - I didn't notice til today.

Here is what I did - and I hope its the right thing to do.

One cage I have is the 3 babies - 54 days old. 2 females and a male.
Second cage has the male and female - parents.

I moved the male to the cage with the kids. I hope this works. I just felt like I needed to give the female a break from him. I do hope that it won't make things work. I feel terrible for breaking them up. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Christine

You def did the right thing separating them. I don't own zebs so maybe someone else can give you more info. Just wanted to bounce some encouragement your way. I know this is a common problem with zebs, but it's fixable

The hen certainly needs some time to herself to recover. She might appreciate a little extra heat, some eggfood, some Feather Fast. Now you will have to watch him with the babies, he may start featherplucking them, in which case he will need to be put by himself. There is an article on featherplucking and things you can do about it at the Finch Information Center, linked at left.

Would the babies pick on her as well I wonder? If the male starts picking on them - could I put the male on his own and leave the female with the chicks? Hmm. I only have two cages at the moment - not ready to lose any of my birds though - so I will do whatever I have to make it work.

Thanks everyone!
Christine

You can also try putting her in with the young ones, but don't be surprised if they also pluck her. It's like zebs just can't resist once the plucking has started. I've seen them staring at the bald spot, deciding which feather to pull to make it even bigger. You're probably best off following Sally's advice to give her some "alone time" until she refeathers.