Aggressive bird

[zeebeez]

Hi,

I have a problem with my finches that I don't understand. I know that finches will pick on lonely finch because it's an easy target, but I have a finch who won't stop picking on a specific bird who's already paired up. She doesn't pick on any other bird... it's not every single day but when she does pick on her, it's for hours.

Anyways, now the poor thing has some feathers missing and I'm considering just giving away the aggressive one... but I wanted to check whether or not this is normal and there is a solution.

Thanks

[lovezebs]

zeebeez

It happens in the animal kingdom and in the human kingdom.

The aggressive one might want the mate that your victim is paired up with. Does the aggressive bird have a mate?

You could simply seperate the bully into another cage with either her mate or another Zebra that she does get along with.

[ac12]

Separate the aggressive bird.

It is very hard to understand aggression, but I liken it to bullies in school. They may pick on specific birds/classmates for who knows what reason.

My method has always been to remove the aggressive birds and put them in a cage of their own, the bullies cage, and to NOT breed them.

Based on my limited observation, it seemed to me that aggression in zebras was passed on from parent to child. So once I figured that out, I stopped breeding the aggressive zebras, and gave them to my friend who had a place for them.

The most funny thing that I saw was when I gave a pair of very aggressive zebras to a friend. He put them in with his quails, and I had never seen those zebras act so timid. They were no longer the "big shot" in the cage. The quails were not aggressive, it was their physical size that was intimidating to the smaller zebras.

Also SPACE. I have another friend who did not have any of the problems that I had. But she had a MUCH LARGER cage for the zebras, so they had the space to escape to and have their own "private space."

[Fraza]

I think you should put it in a separate cage with the one that it's bullying so put the bully and the victim in the cage separately for them to have time to pair however don't put them where they can hear each other or try getting it a pair this usually sorts them out sometimes a bird has to reach snapping point though the victims will always eventually snap back and it will stop .

[Madiddy]

I am new to having multiple finches. I've always had just one pair and never had a problem. I have a beautiful good size cage with two pairs and all they did was fight. I read that three pairs is the magical number even though I knew it would be a tad crowded. Now, the newest hen keeps pecking at the 2nd hen. Her back is practically bare! I separated her to allow her feathers to grow. She seems to go stir crazy In her new cage. Someone explain please?

[Fraza]

I've recently just wrote a thread similar to this where one female was attacking a male who was paired up with another female and every time he danced she would attack I took her out and paired her with another male and now they are fine think elana is right she might just be jealous she told me this on my thread aswell and she was right

[lovezebs]

Madiddy

Can you place her mate in with her? That might calm her down.

[MariusStegmann]

zeebeez What kind of finches are you having the problem with? What size is your cage? Overcrowding can also bring out the worst in some finches.

[Madiddy]

Thanks for the tips. I've got 6 zebra finches, 3 males and 3 females. The first two pairs I got fought each other but both hens laid eggs. To stop the fighting, I bought a 3rd pair. Now the 2nd female is being pecked badly by the 3rd hen. It seems the 3rd male has begun to court the 2nd hen.They've made a new nest in the corner together. The pecked 2nd hen has abondoned her nest of eggs leaving the male to tend to eggs. Now that I've separated the pecked 2nd hen and put her in her own cage alone, the 2nd and 3rd male seem to miss her. They're both constantly staring at her, bouncing around trying to get close to her. I'm afraid of putting a male in the cage with her. If I do, I'll have two pairs in the original cage again, which was a huge problem.
I've made the egg mixture for her so her feathers can grow back but she doesn't seem to want to eat it. She just cries. It's like Bachelors on Paradise reality show! What should I do?

[MariusStegmann]

Madiddy Zebra finches are very territorial and vicious around their nests. Some more violent than others. Unfortunately you picked the wrong specie of finch to keep multiple pairs there of. If they were society finches or bengalese as they are known in my end of the world, there would be no fighting.

[Madiddy]

What I find ironic is that the pecking hen didn't have a nest. No male wanted her. I guess that may explain why she kept pecking at the hen who had two male suitors? They're more human than I thought.

[Madiddy]

I love the chirps and calls of zebra finches. If society and bengalese have a similar chirp, I'd be happy to get a flock of them, too!

[Fraza]

Madiddy why don't you have your first two pairs of zebras and get a nice pair of bengalease with them then u still have 3 pairs

I had this but with two pairs of bengals/society and 1 zeb pair and they do have a nicer sound and more entertaining dance than zebras in my opinion, just the colour not as nice in some

[Madiddy]

I've heard it's not a good idea to mix different types of finches in the same cage. Has anyone had problems with different breeds in the same enclosure?

[Fraza]

Madiddyi didn't have a problem with a pair of zebs and two bengalease but now I have them all in avairy but I even had 2 clutch from my society's aswell and my zeb laid eggs but didn't incubate them as it was there first clutch there was only one time when I had to put a barrier so they couldn't see each other when in the beds