FINCHforum

I am a new member so forgive me if you have addressed this many times before.
I have had a pair of bronze mannequins for six months now. I built them a beautiful flight cage after much internet research. It is 48”long x 20”x20”. It contains a nest with plenty of nesting material, several natural branch perches and silk greens that are tied to simulate being in the trees. I recently put a fake rock bath in the bottom - which both used with relish – after I discovered they were using their tube water station to bathe in. Other than that, I don’t mess with them. There has never been another bird in the cage, and they seemed very happy, softly chirping to each other until the millet spray goes in and then the male gets his fill before letting the hen near it. They have never laid eggs, though the hen gives the male signals every morning when they come out of the nest. I do hear some strange thumping going on in the nest after they have gone to bed. I thought the nest might be too small for them so I bought a larger nest about four months ago. The female has always had a bald spot on the back of her head (since I saw them in the pet store) and I assumed the feathers on the cage bottom were a molt as I also saw pin feathers on the pair. Today I walked in and found that the male was chirping very loudly and mercilessly chasing the female all over the cage until she was exhausted and fell to the bottom of the cage. I tried turning off the lights, hoping that might calm them down a bit. They both went to the nest and the thumping turned out to be the male buffeting the hen and pecking at her in the nest. I separated the male out for now, but I am hoping that someone can help me with a bit of birdie therapy to put the pair back together. Should I get another pair - though the pet store will ot have another pair of Mannequins - to try and divide the attention a bit? What sort of other finch would go well with mannequins?

I don't have any mannequins, although I really want some....
But I have heard that they are passive and get along with other birds.
He may be in the mood to breed and she is not. I really don't know of any other reason that they would begin fighting. I think you did the right thing by seperating them. If you look at the link on the left you will see an information center and you can find which birds would be compatible with them. It may be that after some time you can put them back together. I would be concerned about him plucking her though. Perhaps someone else that has mannequins will come on shortly and help you.

Also, if you could update your profile and let us know what area you are from it may help with future post.

I am wondering if it could be a food issue. I picked up a new bag of captive finch feed - the same brand that I have always fed them - and started mixing the two about a week before the old bag ran out. I have always noticed that they don't eat certain seeds in the mix like thistle and some of the others (they really like the millet, but who ever heard of a finch that didn't like thistle seed?) This time there are more seeds of different kinds left in the dish (oblong or marquise shaped - as the diamond world calls them and the little bits of what I believe are supposed to pass for fruit.) I usually just dump out the uneaten seed every day and refill the dish. I have tried all the standard substitutions - broccoli, bean sprouts, egg food, etc. but they want nothing to do with any of it - dry seed only.
I took the mean guy out of the cage and he spent the afternoon (about 3 hours) amid the silk greens on top of the wardrobe in my room. The hen quietly went about her business, but she spent a lot of time hopping around on the bottom of the cage - apparently just reading the newspaper.
Since I didn't have an extra cage handy this afternoon - I am going to pick up a spare this evening - I had to put the male back in the flight at close to bed time. As I watched, he went right to the food and water. The hen hopped down and stayed with him for a bit, but when he went from the food dish to the millet, he puffed out his chest and head feathers in - what I see as - an aggressive posture while she tried to get to the highest point in the flight and stayed small and diminutive. Every time she would go to either the food dish or the millet, he would chase her away and chow down. He only chased her for a bit in between chowing, but they soon bedded down together.
I'll watch them tomorrow and see if the strange behavior continues. I can't believe it's been going on too long because the way he was getting after her this morning, she would soon be dead from the stress.