Zebra died of prolapse. How long will male mourn?

[cntrymeadow]

We had a pair of zebras..it was the only two zebras we had. The rest are societies and gouldians.

Saturday the female zebra died of prolapse. Totaly unexpected and hubs and I were a little shook up.

The male was in obvious deep mourning.
We ran out and bought another female and he did perk up right away.
He is eating and letting her preen him but 1/2 the time he will go in the tent and just hide/sleep. Then he will come out for a little while.

How long will he be sad?
Did we do the right thing by getting another female?
We didnt want him to be the only zebra in the aviary.

The female that died unfortunately was a prolific egg layer. We were not breeding her but she still kept laying eggs in the aviary even though there are no nests. I also give them liquid calcium.

I sure hope this doesnt happen again. It was awful.

[cindy]

I am sorry for your loss. Hope the male comes around soon and adjusts to his new mate.

[HoangQuan]

Im sorry for your loss , but I think you'd better check him to make sure he haven't got any disease/illness from his last mate. Finding him a new mate right the way is too soon, I think, but since they've been doing well, that's fine. And if he's healthy, it just may take a day or two for him to be active again.
Wish you and your finches all the best.

[CandoAviary]

Sorry for you loss. I would think he would be back to normal soon. You may try changing things up in the aviary. Maybe add a new swing, move the perches around. His tent thing, etc. This may get him into exploring the new surroundings and new mate instead of sulking.

[Nagdabit]

Our condolences on your loss. We had a hen die from that as well, and yes it was awful. Sounds as though your providing well for them. Probably just one of those unfortunate things that happen.

Although you might want to reevaluate the liquid calcium. By putting it in their water (if that's how you are dispensing it) they are forced to consume the product, and believe it or not, too much calcium can be a bad thing. If you provide it for them by means of a variety of choices (for example, egg shell, oyster shell, cuttle bone, etc.) they can ingest it as needed, and they are generally pretty good about knowing what it is that their little bodies need. Still I doubt very much that the liquid calcium would have contributed to her condition.

Whenever we've lost a hen, the male would generally call for her for about a week. An extremely excruciating time for us and him. But I would think that to be a necessary evil so that he realizes she's not coming back.

As HoangQuan mentioned, while the optimum situation would have been to quarantine the hen first, making the timing ideal then to introduce the new hen after wards, it sounds like there's been no harm done.

Still in your time of grief, the last thing you need to hear is what all you may or may not have done wrong. Best rather to focus on how to help the new couple. I think Candace has a good idea. By switching things around a bit, it may force him to refocus and not concentrate on his missing honey.

Please keep us updated on the progress of your couple. Chances are he'll take to her in due time, especially if they are already getting along to some degree. Sounds like he just needs to make sure his previous mate isn't coming back.

[lovemyfinch]

So sorry for your loss.

[mickp]

sorry for your loss.
one way to get him back to normal would be to let him do what comes normally for a zebra and that is to breed, so give him a nest & some materials. he'll soon show more interest in the new hen

[cntrymeadow]

Thanks everyone...my poor hubby was mortified...as he had no clue what had happened. I knew about the condition as did lots of reading before even getting our first finch.

I offer them eggshell, oyster shell and cuttlebone freestyle and was giving the liquid calcium once a week (the bottle says 5 x per week if breeding).
I know producing/laying eggs depletes the body of calcium so I assumed this is what happened to the zebra. She just laid too many damned eggs and got bound up/poor muscle retraction etc.

So last night, because I do not want this to happen to any other finch, I was thinking maybe I should give the liquid calcium more often...

However now I come back here and read your posts...and am thinking maybe I should not even do the liquid calcium!

I dont want him or any of the finch to breed at the moment hence no nesting material in the aviary.
I was afraid if he didnt have a female then he would just not come out of the tent to eat/drink. You can tell he is still depressed but I think he is a little better every day. I just felt so bad for him.