FINCHforum

I have a pair of Zebras and a pair of Cordon Bleus and I'm afraid to put them in the same cage. If they are NOT going to get along will it be fairly immediate or will it happen over a few days?

I was looking at a combination site and peronally I wouldn't do it.

The Cordon Bleus are too nice for the pushy Zebras.

If you have them in seperate cages already why combine?

Are you looking at getting more finches?

I was looking at a combination site and peronally I wouldn't do it.

The Cordon Bleus are too nice for the pushy Zebras.

If you have them in seperate cages already why combine?

Are you looking at getting more finches?

Thanks for your reply! I have my 2 zebras in a large flight cage and the 2 cordons are in a regular cage, I just thought they would like the extra room. I think we are just going to build an indoor aviary with a divider to keep them seperate.

The Zebras were the first finches I purchased. I looked up on the finchniche.com at the compatability chart before I purchased the cordons and it said the red cheeked were compatable. Then after I purchased them I saw on this website that they are in a different category!

They are all precious and I don't want them stressed so I'll keep them seperate.

Thanks!

OMG I just looked at the FinchNiche website again and I thought the blank spaces meant they were compatable. I read it completely wrong. Well I'll definately be keeping them seperate.

sugrpootsmon, they should definitely be kept separate but I wouldn’t write off the Cordons as being pushovers. They can stand their ground but will have difficulty to breed with Zebs around.

Personally I would swap the Zebs and Cordons for now. The CB need room to fly and do better in a larger aviary or flight cage. The zebs will be fine in a smaller cage as they do not fly as much as the CB's.

I think I'll just buy another larger flight cage from the same place for the cb's, the little zebras are awful happy. The cage the cb's are in right now lets them fly so they should be ok until I can get the larger one this weekend.

I think If I get anymore I'll get a pair of owl and a pair of gouldians to keep with the cbs in my indoor aviary once it is built but thats it. It breaks my heart to see a lot of birds clustered together in one cage and my house isn't but so big. I already have 3 cockatiels, a conure and a parakeet and all of them have their own seperate large cages.

This is my first experience with finches and I can't believe that after all the preperation I thought I did I ended up reading the compatibility chart incorrectly, I could kick myself in the butt. I don't want to breed them, I just love birds and thought I could give them a good home.

I made the same mistake using the compatibility chart at Finch Niche. I think it is because they use an 'x' to mark species that can be together, whereas in my mind, I associate 'x' with 'no'. It caused some confusion when I was first getting started.

You are usually safe mixing passive species, though there are exceptions (birds that have similar coloring may have trouble getting along), but those in the pushy category can go either way. I have a male Shaft-tail in my community flight with passive species, and he isn't the least bit pushy, he is the best buddy to an Owl. However, and this is not meant to offend the Zebra lovers on here, Zebras can almost always be counted on to cause problems in a community cage or flight.

My male zebra is quit sassy. Its funny because I was soooo worried about Itty and Bitty (my zebras) getting harrassed by Itsy and Bitsy (my cb's). I might have to rename my zebras to Bonnie and Clyde. They are the most adorable little things though!

I also wonder about having more than one female to a male. Do they always have to be paired up? Could I get more female zebras to put in the zebra cage?

More than one female to one male will be fine until the male picks a mate and they start to breed. The male might also copulate with more than one female but the nesting female will now become more aggressive towards the other unpaired females as a general rule.

Zebs are a difficult species to house together but in my experience it is better to have one pair or 3 or more pairs of the same species housed together. I Have kept between 5 - 10 pairs zebras in one large aviary together and the bred and lived fine together.

It is very important to realize that zebras (and other birds for that matter) have different personalities and some tend to be more aggressive than others. Keep a close eye on them and remove the aggressor when he/she gets out of hand. This way you can ensure that your general population of birds is happy.

I kept a pair of cordon bleus in my aviary with my motley crew of zebs for a couple of years with no hassle at all.
In actual fact, I'm surprised to see that it's not advisable to keep them together. I had not a problem. In fact, when the female cordon died, the male paired up (after a while) with one of the female zebs. They never nested together, and she had a male that she DID nest with, but the three of them lived quite harmoniously - often the two boys would be sitting either side of her on the perch together.

I've also kept Zebs and CB together but there is very little chance that you will breed the CB's with Zebs around as the slightly larger Zebs enjoyed kicking my CB out of their nests.

I keep LG and Cordons together but I would NEVER let my Zebras in there , way to active and all,

I kept a CB and Zebra together in a gazebo cage and they were quite happy with each other. Now I have two zebras with 2 red eye-striped vireos and 1 Saffron finch in a rather large aviary and they all get along fine.

I have gouldians and red cheeked cordons together in the aviary and everything is fine. the owls were ok in there as well.