FINCHforum

Feathers, the sick zebra I took in on short notice some weeks ago, is doing well. At some awesome advice from here, she is started on medication for her eye infection and waste issue.

As she's gotten more comfortable, she's also gotten louder. I haven't had birds before, and read finches were especially chatty in the morning and evening. But when I am there she beeps CONSTANTLY. I love the little thing and I'm glad she's doing do well, but she's been going for 6 hours straight and I'd be lying if it wasn't driving me a little batty.

Is this typical behavior? She also hops around a lot. Wondering if she's looking for other birds. Might be my fault for trying to talk to her and get her used to us?

LOL! Zebbies can be VERY noisy! My Zebbie, Beaky, beeps and meeps ALL DAY and I'm not kidding! If she's on her own, she's calling for others. Can you give her a radio to listen to? Or if you get another bird, she will chirrup and meep to them. They are social birds. I have three birds - canary, zebbie, and star finch; all male and in separate cages but they love speaking to eachother.

L0te
Hi. She's probably just lonesome and trying to call out to other birds in the vicinity, or even trying to talk to you, seeing as there is no one else to talk to.
Are you planning on keeping her? If you are, then getting her a companion at a later date might be a solution. If not thinking of keeping her, then maybe a swing to play with, some Timothy hay on bottom of cage to forage through, a window to look outside, just something to keep her occupied until she goes to her forever home. An only Zebra, is not a happy Zebra.

You can get her another zebra, if you do not want her to breed then perhaps another hen...zebras, finches need company preferably her own species.

Agreed with Cindy.
Sounds like she's lonely and perhaps calling for a friend or talking to you if you're the only being around.
This is common in bored/lonely birds. They just tend to vocalize in an attempt to keep themselves occupied. I think you'll find she'll be much quieter if you pair her with someone.

Some birds are VERY chatty.
My little Squeepers quite literally twitters all day. About 80% of the time, he's doing this soft, under his breath twittering sound. He's not talking to anyone in particular. Just likes to hear himself!
I've actually never seen anything quite like it!

I have others who are very chatty. Mostly zebras, but also other species, like a silverbill. I also had a super chatty Star.

I would definitely get her a friend. Finches are flock birds, so they don't do well alone.
Males tend to be louder than females, so if you prefer quiet, I might opt for a female zebra.

Thanks for the feedback! I turned a radio on for her today while i was at work and she seems much more relaxed tonight. not so much hopping and beeping.

I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping her. I wouldn't mind another, especially if the noise would stay the same or get better. She's still got her eye infection/poop/foot picking/weird inflating crop issues going on, and she was a severely bullied bird in the past, so I don't want to make any additions until she's all healed up (she is on an antibiotic and anti protozoan right now).

The beeping is pretty cute, but when I'm trying to read or work... talk about distracting!