Advice please

If you are new to the hobby and have some "newbie" questions - feel free to post them here! :0)
versysrob
Pip
Pip
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:42 pm

Re: Advice please

Post by versysrob » Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:11 pm

New to forum. Had male and female Zebras. Romance quickly led to 4 babies. All healthy. Kept Adult male and baby male only. Gave the rest away. I understood zebras are social and want to live in pairs. I don't want more eggs or babies so keeping a Daddy and Son seemed like the perfect plan. It has been several months. both continue to appear healthy, and sing frequently. I do see them flying after each other everyday while "hissing" at each other. NO missing feathers, I don't see one picking at the other, just flying like crazy birds after each other. There are plenty of perches and I just added a second enclosed nest as one sleeps in the nest each night while the other sleeps on top. I fear they are not getting along and don't know what else to do. Separation is not an option as I only want the one cage. I see them both eating and drinking from the same bowl with no issue. I fear one is living in a constant state of anxiety, or am I just being silly. Perhaps my job as a RN mental health counselor is clouding my judgement!! Advise appreciated.

Branching out
Hatchling
Hatchling
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:33 pm

Re: Advice please

Post by Branching out » Sat Jan 26, 2019 4:06 pm

I am feeling sad and guilty today. Both my owl finches died in the night and I can only conclude it was because they got too cold. I knew they were not as tolerant of the cold as other finches but had read widely that they were adaptable and as long as they were not in a draft they were fine with cooler night time temperatures. It was colder earlier during the week and at 12.30am the temperature was 18C. The room they are in has a bank of aquariums on one wall and although it is unheated, the residual heat from them makes it warm enough for me to sit an use the computer in there on a cold day, so I assumed the same was true at night. When I go in at 5.30am the room is cooler than the rest of the house but not below 18C. The birds were dead on the cage floor at opposite ends of the cage with no sign of any other problems. Their Bengalese companions are fine and they had be acting normally the day before. The only other thing that has changed is that I usually use uncoloured sugar paper to line the cage and when I couldn't get that I used black this week. I suppose there is a slight chance that the dye is poisonous but they haven't pecked at it or anything, so I have concluded that the temperature must have dropped too low. Any thoughts on what too low would be based on personal experience? I am feeling very guilty about this; I lost a budgie a few weeks ago but she was 5 years old and was from mixed genetics bred accidentally in an avaiary, so whilst not old, her time had probably come. These two are under a year old and I am responsible for their demise, so that feels very different.

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