Get male or female Spice Finch for flock?

[AzillaFinch]

Hi all! I was wondering if some of you with experience could point me in the right direction. For the last year and a half I have had 2 pairs of finches - a male/female pair of Cordon Bleu's and a male/female pair of Zebras. About three weeks ago my female Zebra died from a congenital defect in her digestive tract (vet did a necropsy). I am not interested in breeding and my male Zebra had gotten aggressive with his female and yanked out all the feathers on the back of the neck of the female shortly before she died, so I decided that her replacement would be a male. I also wanted to add a new pair to the flock and decided on Spice Finches, since I read that they are supposed to be more passive and get along with my Zebras and Cordon's. Went the other day and got the male Zebra and male Spice. There was not a female Spice available, so I have one ordered. I came home and put those two in their quarantine cage, and they're doing great, getting along, and all is well. But have been wondering if I should really bring home a female Spice for the male or not. I am not interested in breeding any of my birds (the male/female Cordon's did a brief nesting stint and laid 10 eggs, never sat on them and completely abandoned their nest, never to return to it, and have never once since had "birdie sex" so they seem completely disinterested in parenting all together... fine by me). If I got another male Spice, I have read that too many males in a cage could cause fighting if there's a female (I have that one Cordon female). So I am not sure what to do. Another male Spice or a female?

[Sally]

A lot depends on the size of your cage/flight. There is a cage calculator here: http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/cage_s ... ulator.php. This is for breeding birds, so you can stock a bit more in a non-breeding situation, depending on the species. Zebra finches are often pushy, so I wouldn't overcrowd when this species is in the mix.

Welcome to the forum! There's lots of good reading at www.finchinfo.com, where you will find many articles on housing, compatibility, and the general care of finches. If you put your general location in your profile, it makes it easier to answer locale-specific questions later on.

[lovezebs]

AzillaFinch

As Sally, mentioned, a lot depends on the size if the cage/flight.
Also, a lot depends on the temperament of your individual birds. If your older male Zebra, is aggressive, he might be aggressive with any new birds (or not) It's hard to tell.

If it were me, I would go for another male spice, rather than a female. Throwing a female into the equation, may cause competition between the males (even if it is another species).

Elana

[AzillaFinch]

Lovezebs & Sally, thanks so much for your input!!

HOUSING: I'm keeping it non-breeding, so I have the pair of Cordon's housed with a pair of Zebras (male is single right now due to death of partner). Per cage sizing, I have the right size cage for 2 pair. No fighting... ever. Everyone seems happy with the space. BUT that's the max going into that cage. Am getting a bigger flight cage (like double flight cage or one with 9-12 sq ft flooring as recommended) before adding the pair of Spices to bring flock up to 3 pairs. Until new bigger cage, Spices are staying separate.

ZEBRA AGGRESSION: My older Zebra has never once shown aggression towards the Cordons. The Cordons kinda do their own thing and the Zebra does his. They share perches and are friendly and can be at the food dish together. Never a squabble. Only aggression older Zebra ever showed towards his former female mate was over zealous preening but never fighting. New Zebra has made friends with new Spice in quarantine cage. First day new Spice was chasing him off of perches but from second day on they actually play together, huddle together, sleep together and Spice lets Zebra preen him. Both are not only doing their "talk" chirp, but also their happy "singing/warble," (took me a while to hear the Spice since his chirp/song is so subtle). They seem happy and able to get along.

Sooooooo....

Since I want to keep a non-breeding cage, and I am providing (with new cage) enough room, a second male Spice should be good? And avoid the "fighting over females" thing that the two Zebra males could pull, right?

And (oy, sorry so many questions... ugh... I am a newbie!)....
How should I go about getting this second Spice male?

1. Get it now and put it in quarantine with Zebra/Spice males?
a. Since the Zeb/Spice made friends I would pull them out, rearrange perches food, etc then put them and new guy back in and all looks new
b. Would this be a 3rd guy's the odd man out situation?

2. Wait till quarantine up then put male Zebra in with flock so he can be with his mate/buddy; keep Spice in quarantine cage; get new male Spice and start quarantine over (the older Spice guy just gets a longer quarantine)

3. Get new male Spice and keep it in separate quarantine cage then join with older male Spice at end of quarantine?
a. My older Zebra is NOT happy that there's another Zebra that he can hear but not physically play with or sit next to and I feel HORRIBLE but I HAVE to quarantine the new guy. Half of me feels like I am being responsible for the health of my flock; other half of me feels like I'm driving my older Zebra bats%$t crazy because he's hopping all around talking non-stop to the new guy. The thought of another bird sitting without its kind or a buddy alone... well, I am not sure if that is cruel.

Thoughts?

[Sheather]

I strongly doubt a zebra male would view a spice hen as a mate unless he were housed with only her. I have three male zebras and only one of them has a female partner, but the two chose to bond on one another without ever going after either of my spice hens. The two species are just too different, I don't think it's a real issue.

I would get the spice a hen, or a male companion, but at least one other of its species. I don't think there would be much problem either way.

Spice finches don't breed readily in captivity anyway. My first pair did have three chicks in the large aviary I used to house them in, though not even an attempt has been made since the family moved to a closed cage.