FINCHforum

So, I went to feed my two week old zebra last night and he was missing from the brooder box! I had no idea he had the ability to move around very much at all, much less hop out of a tupperware bowl into a roasting pan, hop out of the pan into the tupperware tub I keep that in and then hop out of all of that to the floor. We tore the room up looking for him. Anyway, he was found a couple of hours later in another room behind a mirror (still not sure how he managed that one). He was in the "death pose" so I started to panic. I filled a syringe with warm pedialyte and pretty much forced the bird to drink. I didn't know what else to do. He regained consciousness and was pretty much a normal bird again within an hour. I stayed up until 4am checking on him and feeding him the second his crop was empty and holding him between my hands. But by 4am I was pretty tired so I put him back in the box and put the box by my bed. When I woke up he was hopping around (too advanced for two weeks I think). I fed him a mixture of pedialyte and kaytee exact two times, once at 7am and once at 8:30am. I went downstairs to drink a cup of coffee and eat some breakfast and then went outside to play with the kids thinking that the bird was back to normal. I came back upstairs at 10am and he was back in the death pose and his skin was all red again. Same routine again. I thought he was definitely going to die, force pedialyte, bird goes back to normal. Right now I've decided to keep him with me all day in my hands or within view. I'm even taking him to my mom's cookout. But anyway, has anyone experienced this? I've never seen a bird develop motor skills this quickly, it can't be normal - when he's active he's almost flying and he was born three days before mother's day. And then to dehydrate completely to the point of death within two hours? Something seems very off here but I can't seem to find any other stories even close to mine anywhere.

I feel like I should also mention that this bird was rescued from a pet store that sold its parents accidentally. I went in to the store on Monday and there were eggs in the nest and they were calling me on Sunday to please keep this bird alive. Anyway, the parents were both white zebras (albinos?). Could that have something to do with this strange behavior?

This chick is probably not as far as advance as you may think. It sounds as if this chick has no other chick to hold it back. Chicks that are alone develop at differnet rate than those that are raised and surrounded by other chicks in the nest. Some flourish and others flounder staying dependent for far longer than exppected. It sounds as though you have one that is flourishing. We have had some that rebound from desperation much the sme as you have and that is delightful. Keep an eye on it and keep doing all that you can to keep it thriving, but do not over mother it. It still needs to be a bit independent to keep flourishing. Keep up the good work, keep in mind that you can only do so much, if in the end things don't work out, You have done all you can to help this little wonder of life along it's path. . .

Keeping my fingerd crossed for you and the next generation this little one will have. . .

Sean