Large Enough Cage?

[Mike_B]

Looking forward to sharing experiences here - I bought a male and female zebra finch last September and initially housed them in a 12" x 9" x 18" (high) cage. A finch care book recommended larger quarters so I ordered a 30" x 18" x 30" flight cage on Amazon.com and since then there've been two separate breedings of three babies each. After the second set of eggs hatched, I transferred two birds from brood 1 to the smaller cage so they wouldn't interfere with the parents' taking care of brood 2. Unfortunately, the mother died suddenly while the second trio was still in the nest box (luckily the father soon resumed feeding them).

Shortly after they'd emerged from the nest, I returned the two finches from the small cage back to the big one, but they immediately got aggressive and chased their younger siblings back into the nest. Now I have six birds in the larger cage (with one from brood 1 at least temporarily in the smaller one) and they seem to be getting along fine - but are six zebra finches too many for a cage of that size?

[Sally]

The first problem you will have is that you have a father and five of his babies in one cage together. Eventually, the father will start mating with his daughters, or the female babies will start mating with their brothers. Finches, especially in captivity, don't care about inbreeding.

If you want to keep them all, the best scenario would be to have at least two cages and put all the hens in one cage and all the males in the other cage, thus stopping any chance of inbreeding. You will have to watch the numbers though, because if they are too crowded, you may see aggression and feather plucking.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on breeding, housing, and especially the Zebra finch. Also, I am so sorry you lost your hen, it is never easy.

[ApricotMuffins]

Welcome to the forum!

The short answer is yes, that is too small. Just because they can coexist peacefully in a cage that size doesn't necessarily mean that they should.

Here is a handy calculator from finchinfo to help calculate how much space will be necessary for your birds. Cage Size Calculator

If you are convinced that they are fledged, you might want to consider pulling the nesting box until you decide to breed again. And if you're planning to breed by getting a different adult hen, you'll definitely need more room. Separating by gender would be a good idea too if you want the breeding to stop.

Losing a hen is always hard, but thankfully the male finch has picked up the slack--he'll have definitely earned a rest after raising a trio all by himself!

[lovezebs]

Mike_B

As a rule, when it comes to cages, bigger is always better!

The question you want to ask here is , do you want more Zebras?

If the answer is yes, then you will need another hen.

Parents and children , brothers and sisters etc. should not be bred, or allowed to breed. Not a good thing.

So now, you have a cage with two adult birds breeding, nesting, laying, hatching, rearing chicks, and doing it all over again, and again, and..... well you get the picture.

What to do with the growing army of youngsters?

Unless you want to get them all mates, and start a zebra breeding business, you will have to seperate males and females, into two seperate flight cages. So now you have three flight cages, with an ever growing number of zebras.

What next? How many family members and friends do you have?

If you want to discourage the cycle, you will need to remove the nests, which may or may not work. The only full proof way, is to seperate males and females into two cages (hopefully sizable cages, so birdies have room to fly and move around without being overcrowded).

Good luck.

~Elana~

[Mike_B]

What to do with the growing army of youngsters?

Unless you want to get them all mates, and start a zebra breeding business, you will have to seperate males and females, into two seperate flight cages. So now you have three flight cages, with an ever growing number of zebras.

What next? How many family members and friends do you have?

If you want to discourage the cycle, you will need to remove the nests, which may or may not work. The only full proof way, is to seperate males and females into two cages (hopefully sizable cages, so birdies have room to fly and move around without being overcrowded).

I never anticipated ending up with seven finches after buying the original pair - that second breeding caught me off guard as I'd assumed (perhaps naively) that the parents wouldn't resume mating activities so soon after the first trio had left the nest. I'd ordered fake eggs online after noticing the second set of eggs, but they took a week to arrive and by that time the real ones had already hatched.

Not having sufficient space in my apartment for a second flight cage right now, perhaps I should try and find a new home for four of the birds (keeping three). Since none of my relatives or friends are likely to be interested in taking them on, could you (or anyone else) offer some tips on how to go about doing that?

[delray]

Mike_B welcome to the forum! I have 30/18/18 for my 2 finches, so that is deffinitely not enough for 7. If you Rehome some of them, I recomend not keeping 3. Either 2 or 4 due to 3rd wheels. Good luck

[Sally]

That is the hardest part of breeding, finding homes for the offspring, especially the more common species like Zebras or Societies. Check with any Mom & Pop pet shops in the area, sometimes they will buy local birds. You can place an ad in Hoobly and/or craigslist, but be aware that there are often more birds offered for sale than there are buyers. Don't offer them for free, snake hobbyists like free birds to feed to their snakes. Check for bird clubs in your area, or shelters that will accept birds.

Personally, I would advise against keeping three birds. Trios often don't work, because two of them will buddy up and then pick on the odd man out. Better to keep just two and rehome the rest if space is a problem. If you don't want future breeding, you could keep Dad and one of his boys, or you could keep two sisters.

[Mike_B]

The local exotic pets clinic notified me yesterday that results of a necropsy conducted on the mother bird showed that she'd died of a fungal infection - so now they want me to give the remaining seven finches an anti-fungal medication (mixed in with their water) for two weeks and then bring them in for evaluation. Obviously I can't proceed with trying to rehome any of them until they get a clean bill of health.

[Sally]

Oh, that is bad news. The medication should clear up the fungal infection, and then you can rehome birds. Is the clinic giving you a break on multiple birds?

[Mike_B]

Oh, that is bad news. The medication should clear up the fungal infection, and then you can rehome birds. Is the clinic giving you a break on multiple birds?

Results of tests conducted at the clinic showed the finches to be free of any yeast infection so I can get back to trying to provide for their long term future. They billed me as if for one bird (the vet actually performed tests on just the father and one finch from each of the two broods extrapolating the results to apply to the other four).

I'm wondering why they're so panicky - every time I walk past the cage they start flying around. Do finches ever learn to fully trust their keepers or are they always on guard to some extent?

[finchmix22]

Mike_B
My avian vet charges per cage or species, which is fine since I bring a clutch or casemates often.
My Forbes and PF's are still flighty, which is typical of those species and I have had them for 3 years, but theystill act scared. Even the original pairs' offspring are flighty! LOL. Go figure....

[Ginene]

My avian vet charges per bird ...and even charged an initial new pet fee per bird! Yeesh!!! But she's super smart and only 10 minutes away, so I just deal with it. Anyway, great news that your finches are well. If you decide to purchase a larger cage and keep them all, just be sure there are no nests in the cage. This will prevent inbred babies. Best of luck to you and your little flock

[CHIRP]

Mike-B
That is far to small a cage, sort of like asking me to live in my bathroom Finches want to be able to fly - they love flying, I would never put 2 birds never mind 6 in a cage any smaller than a cage the length of 45 inches.

[Mike_B]

I went to Petco the other day and purchased a new cage of the same dimensions as the first one (although a different manufacturer) to relieve the overcrowding that's been pointed out here. Not yet being comfortable with handling the birds, I placed the two cages next to each other with the front doors open and waited until at least three had switched over. After two had done so, a third (one of the younger fledglings) managed to get out completely and was flying around my living and dining rooms for a few minutes until I coaxed it into a cardboard box which I placed in the new cage.

So now there are four zebras in the original cage and three in the new one but it's a temporary arrangement until I can get it sorted out by gender - I think cage 1 has two males and two females while cage 2 has two males (including the father) and a female. But I'm not sure about the gender identification - if I posted individual photos of the six juveniles would someone be able to confirm it for me? The long range plan is to sell or give away most of them so I only have to maintain a single cage (the Petco one came with covers for the food and water containers which help reduce the daily mess).

[Mike_B]

I'm trying out the image attachment capability with a photo of the father finch - if successful I'll post individual ones of the six kids as well.

I noticed that PetSmart offers a water bottle where you have to train the birds to use it - does anyone know if that would work for finches? They tend to mess up the water containers with droppings and I'm not always there to clean and refill them when that happens.

There's a major pet expo coming up in nearby Chantilly. VA later this month - could a trip there possibly assist me in rehoming some of the birds?