FINCHforum

I have two pairs of finches, two males and two females. (or, for the sake of this post, M1 & M2 and F1 and F2).

M1 and F1 have paired off and laid some eggs, which have since hatched. However, now F1 is becoming bald. She's lost all her feathers from her butt to her neck. (They stay at my boyfriend's house, by the way). I've watched a few times to see who was doing it and I've decided that it's M1 (most of the time) and F2 (I don't think it's mostly her doing, but when they poke each other F2 sometimes gets one of F1's feathers). M2 isn't really doing anything; he just sits on his side of the cage.

My problem is that I don't know what to do about M1. Should I remove him from the cage? Will this upset F1 and the babies? Or should I remove F1?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sounds to me like M1 is ready to breed again and is trying to convince F1. If F1 is feeding all the babies and able to look after them on her own - I would remove M1 until the chicks are weaned.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Are these Zebras? The males are often ready to go again before the females--does this sound familiar? Anyway, Liz has given you good advice. If you leave M1 in the cage, he may start to pluck the babies, too.

Yeah, they're zebras.

Yeha i would def move M1 out in his on cage and if the others still continue you might have to take them all out in another cage and leave the F1 in the original cage with the clutch to raise on her own.