FINCHforum

History: the pair had a clutch of 4, and mother has been separated for 2 weeks. (She was aggressive to the babies and wanted to begin making eggs again). The babies are now 6 weeks old and are independent. Last night I reunited the parents in their own cage and they were immediately happy. This morning I discovered that the mother had plucked all of the father's tail feathers out! He's just a little ball now

They seem very happy together, and he doesn't mind when she preens him, but I feel terrible that she has removed his tail. (He's behaving normally all day, doesn't seem to bothered by the lack of tail).

I know that one possibility is that she's looking for nesting material. They are mating again, but there is no nest provided. I don't want to give them any nesting material because I don't want to encourage eggs.

Maybe she went crazy on him because she missed him? (I wish I could understand the bird brain).

The cage is small, but like I said, they are happy to be together.

I was going to combine the parents with the babies soon, but now I'm afraid that she will pick on them (which was the whole point of removing her in the first place).

Any advice on this experience would be appreciated.

Or she thinks he deserted her.

If you do not want any more chicks, keep the M and F separated. Because kept together, they will want to mate and some will, then you will have eggs laid where ever the hen can lay them.

I have had situations where the hen (not the male) would pick on white or pied chicks, to the extent that I had to separate them. She with the non-white and non-pied chicks, and the male with the white and pied chicks. This has happened several time with different hens, so there seems to be something about white chicks that triggers aggression in the hen. But the aggression happens only after they fledge.