FINCHforum

Hello everyone.
I'm a new user and new to bird keeping.

I started last month with two pairs of zebras.
One male started getting fluffy so I started looking for info on the internet.
I was informed by another source that the other male was picking on him but I did not see any of that type of activity. I was also informed that there needed to be more females in the male to female ratio.
So I brought home two more females. Now I have two males and four females.
But today I noticed that two females are getting fluffy.
I placed a 60 watt light shinning down on the cage and they all seem to like it. Especially the fluffy male. The fluffy birds act fine, they eat drink bath as normal except that the males voice is not up to par. He tries to speak with me but cannot perform his male squeaky call like he once did. He does speak a bit though.

Any input and/or advice is appreciated.

Scott

When birds puff their feathers like that, they are sick. They will act exactly like you have said. one of my birds had died like that. Soon he wasn't even able to walk, and crawled. I cried so much at that and held him in my hand until he died. This was about two to three years ago, but now I know better. Make sure you get your birds quickly to the vet to help get them healthy again.

The reason they got sick has many different reasons. It could be possible your finches are near a cold air vent, as all Zebra Finch owners should never put their birds near or under any air vent.

If sickness is not the case, however, it could be possible your Zebra Finches are doing this to only keep warm. The temperature should be no too cold nor too hot, it should be just right. I also put a blanket over the cage at night so my Zebra Finches wont get cold, and they like that really much.

Hope I helped!

Hi Scott.
Usually birds will puff up if they're cold or sick. Putting some light and heat on them is a good idea. Also check their diet, to make sure that they have everything that they need for optimum health (good seed mixes, fresh veggies/fruits, hard boiled eggs, cuttle bone, quality bird grit, some multi vitamins, maybe a mineral block, and of course lots if fresh water for both drinking and bathing) Are they getting enough hours of sleep? Is there a bully in the cage picking on his cage mates?
If everything is fine in all these departments and birds still puffed up, I would get some advice from an avian vet. As mentioned above, some sort of an illness might be going through your small flock. Possibly your first puffy male was under the weather and the two new females might have picked it up. Did you by any chance quarantine the new birds? Always an important step when getting new birds both for the health and safety if your existing group as well as for the new kids on the block.
Keep the information coming. I hope things get better soon.
Goodluck.

The original poster is no longer a member of this forum. Though others can benefit from these tips, there is no need to offer advice to this particular person.

Sally
OK....
Just realized that the post date was January. ... not sure why it ended up in active posts.

Oh...well at least me and Zeb gave some tips ^^