FINCHforum

Hi, Desmond and Molly just had a clutch of 5. Before they all fledged Desmond started plucking Molly. I have two Petco flight cages connected so I just put separator back in and kept the family away from Desmond. I figured that as soon as the babies fledged and I was able to get the nest out of there the family could reunite. They fledged today so I let Desmond back in with the family. As I mentioned before there are 5 chicks. Three look just like Molly grey with black beaks but 2 babies have a lot of white on them and their beaks are black and orange. I know the don't get their colors for a while but they look like Desmond. So here I was expecting a happy reunion. Silly me. Desmond went right after the two babies that look like him in a very aggressive way. He leaves the others alone. I was afraid he would hurt them so the separator came back up. Gave it a day and tried again and he behaved badly once again. Any ideas? I have an A E double flight arriving soon. My goal was to get one more male later so there would be 4 pairs and keep the family together. No breeding. Any ideas?

Which kind of finches are Desmond and Molly? Zebra finches?

Yes they are zebras.

Sometimes you will get one bird that is more aggressive than normal. This could be the case here, or he could be wanting to start another clutch, and so he would rather get the youngsters out of his way. He could be picking on only a few because he knows they are males and are future competition. Only time will tell if he is going to settle down.

If you plan on no breeding, then the best thing is to keep all males together and all females together. Or rehome the females and keep all males. If you keep them all together, there will be breeding. Zebra finches will breed like rabbits if given the chance.

Welcome to the forum! There are many articles at www.finchinfo.com, covering housing, diet, breeding, and information on the Zebra finch itself. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on.