Whydo my females die?

[AndreasLon]

I have been having a few problems with my female finches.

A month ago I bought two parrot finches and things were going well until suddenly the female became ill. She looked like the typical sick bird, but she would often lift a leg while perching, not one in particular, just one of them. I took her to the vet and as she suggested antibiotics, but the bird degenerated so quickly and died the day after.

I then bought some more birds, a couple of Gouldians and two Bicheno finches as well as another female Parrot finch. One night one of my cats scared the birds and one in particular started flying around the cage in the dark. I turned the lights on to let them settle down but in the morning I found the female gouldian looking very ill and with a chipped beak. She then went through the same symptoms as the other bird and after 4 days she died too.

I then added a gate and a weak night light so the cats can't go near the cage and if they get scared at night they can still see where they are going. However the bicheno female started looking ill. I added antibiotics to the water and that seems to have made the bicheno female much better, even though she looks a little more fluffed up then the male.

I'm at a loss, the fact that it's always the females makes me think of retained egg problem. the other possibility is that they hurt themselves flying in the dark (but why only the females?), and did the antibiotics really work or was the bicheno finch getting better anyway?

Any idea?

I'm not adding any more birds until this problem is sorted but the male gouldian looks so lonely. Oh and all the males look in top condition.

[B CAMP]

Well its good that you have completely stopped the cat from stalking the birds,cats and birds don't mix at all they very well might of injured them selfs with night frights from the cats ,its good to have some kind of night lights for them I use some real small Christmas light leftover from the holidays they just light up a little.
Do you give them any egg food with shells or cuttlebone for extra calcium that helps with egg binding also you can get calcium to add to there water.good luck
Welcome to the forum check out the link to the left finch info center there is a lot of good stuff there

[L in Ontario]

Ditto what B Camp said. Good luck and welcome.

[yu016]

Only females dying is kinda odd. I would suggest that you start using a calcium/vitamin D3 supplement in their water (2-3 times a week) and provide them with baked egg shell to take care of egg bingding. Stress is the biggest danger to finches and night frights will surely cause stress.