Male society vent area all red and bloody

[zebsoc]

Male society vent area all red and bloody.

I have him in a cage with a Zebra Female.

Could she have caused this?

Or not likely to be anything she did?

She is an aggressive female. She laid a couple eggs last week at bottom of cage (no nests in cage)

Her zebra male mate died last year, am wondering if she is overly aggressive with males?

[zebsoc]

I ma, aged to catch him and move him to a separate cage.

I checked the vent area and it is very pinkish around that area but no sign of actual blood.

His pellet food does have red pellets.

Could it be from the food or from mating activity?
He is a mostly white male society.

I don't want to overreact to something very normal.

[tam]

I'm no expert but if it were me I would isolated the male society finch from the zebra and when the male heals up, get him a couple of society buddies. I would hate for anybody to be alone and for your zebra maybe place her with other zebras. Is you society in bad shape? If so you may want to take him to the vet or make a hospital cage for him. heat lamp and paper towels for the bottom of cage. check with sally??? - tam

[Sally]

If his seed mix has colored pellets, that can cause colored poop. My seed mix doesn't have any pellets in it, but one time when I ran out, I had to get what the feed store had--with colored pellets. The next day, I saw what I thought was blood in the cage, but it was just colored poop from the pellets. Could this be the case with your Society? If your Zebra hen is very aggressive, I'd separate them. An aggressive bird can cause a lot of damage in a short period of time.

[zebsoc]

Hi tam and sally - thank you for your help

his vent area being pinkish red seems new. Unless there is some diarrhea which caused it to become pink since the poop is reddish, but doesn't seem moist, just pink in that area.

I will keep close eye on his poop and vent area. He is now separated in a cage by himself.
I will change his pellets to brown and see if that clears up the pink around the vent.

Would a Female Canary be ok for company for Squeaky the female zebra?
I don't want to risk any more society or zebras with her. She is a bit too aggressive.
A canary would be able to keep from being bullied by Squeaky?
If she bullied the canary, then I'd give up on keeping Squeaky but she was my first bird and I have a soft spot for my troublesome Squeaky.
After her mate died, tho she wasn't nice to him, she became very depressed being alone and just sat all day. so I don't want to leave her by herself.

[ac12]

Sorry to say but female zebras can be a terror.
The only time I've seen them put in their place and being peaceful was when I gave some away, and the new owner put them with doves and quails. The much larger birds intimidated the zebras into behaving.

I would keep her alone in her cage, and put her cage next to the cage with another bird, so she can have some company, but not be able to pick on them.

I gave up on the colored Zupreems because of the problems everyone has mentioned. And the red colored poop will stain wooden perches.

[zebsoc]

ac12 - yes im beginning to realize that the personality of zebras is not very peaceloving to say the least.

I'm not sure that his condition is due to Squeaky or not tho.
It seems to be the same as her last mate that passed away.
However, i now realize that he was sick when I bought him.
He acted sick, fluffed, inactive with head tucked into body in middle of day.
But salesperson convinced me that it was just because he was being picked on by all the other birds, which he was. So I was a sucker and bought him to rescue him, when in fact he was very sickly since he only lived 2 month.
The cage he was in was unused for several months and cleaned well and Squeaky who was with him didn't show any sign of illness. But now after just about 1 month the society male is showing the same signs.

Its hard to know. I have separated him from Squeaky and am keeping an eye on both of them to see if Squeaky shows any signs of illness. Maybe being female and very healthy or because she is a cause of stress that is why only the males so far have become ill?

The new male I bought last week, society crested fawn and white male, did something very weird today. Sort of hard to explain.
I put a treat cup in the cage, it doesn't have a perch like the feeder cups.
Each time he went to put his head down to eat, instead his head would keep bending until he pecked at his lower tummy. Sort of like the mmovement caused it to itch or hurt.
He is Not itching excessive nor has he done that while perching any place else.
He did this head bobbing, peck at stomach Multiple times. Like about 10 times or more before he manage to bend to eat from the treat cup.
It was the weirdest thing.

This major pet store is the only one in my new town that sells finches. But
I bought a dwarf hamster from them which turns out he has neurological problems that are usually caused by severe inbreeding.

Could the crested male have been bred to 2 crested birds? Would it cause such weird abnormal movements?

I really miss not having a Petco in my new town.

[zebsoc]

Happy update:

Whitey is looking active.
After 2 days of brown pellets and seed, his poop isn't red.
However he back side still is. I was able to get a good long look at it since he's in a small sick cage and
It looks like its been picked at. So I think it was just Squeaky.

I will tho keep him separate from all birds for a while. If it was just plucked by Squeaky, then it will clear up in a while and I will move him with the other society.
New cage arriving today.

Squeaky looks very happy and active today. No signs of illness and she isn't depressed about losing Whitey company.
I made a mistake putting the 2 together when it wasn't what either wanted.

She will get the smaller new cage, still very big, esp for just her.

Whitey will get one of the empty cages once all birds are moved into new cages.
Once his back area is healed, he will go into large double flight new cage with rest of society finches.

[ac12]

Give him lots of egg food to help regrow his feathers.

[zebsoc]

Ac12 - thank you, I was wondering what could help with his getting his feathers back, poor fellow.