Help! Male zebra finch is terrorizing female

[HillbillyFinch]

It's to the point I feel like the male zebra is raping the female because she keeps trying to get away from him and he is mating her multiple times a day. She screams out every time he does it or attempts to now. They have been mating non-stop several times a day for over a week and no eggs. I've thought she might be too old to lay as she is a little bigger than him. He just mated her and she was crying out and then after he stopped he literally came back at her and body slammed her off the perch and she landed on her side on the cage floor. I'm new to bird keeping, but he seems brutal. He is also constantly tearing up the paper in the cage no doubt for nesting material. What should I do?

I have another flight cage with a pair of society finches. Should I put the female zebra in with them? Or since it would be three birds would she be the odd one out and get picked on or feel lonely or since she is a zebra will she attack them? Will the male society be in a big hurry to mate her too? I don't even know how to catch her to remove her since I don't have a net and the pet stores don't sell them. The female zebra isn't the friendliest either as she started dive bombing my hand when I tried to put the cuttlebone back up after it had fallen and she seemed to purposefully squirt outside the cage as she flew at me. She has never done that before. What should I do? Is there such thing as birdie tranquilizers?

[wildbird]

I would throw the male out! These birds have to be separated or the he will kill the female. Get rid of that male. Keep her by herself or you could try another female with her. No males.

[Fraza]

So you have probably got abit of territtory issues aswell as him wanting to breed so badly you could seperate the female into the society’s cage because society’s shud be fine and just for a few days leave the Male zebra cage close to the female zebras neee cage so they get to talk to each other

Then I would get some nesting material in the Male zebras cage put a nest in their ( make one out of a cardboard box or anything etc) then move the perches around and add the female back into the cage hopefully they then might get along

And just because the hen is bigger it doesn’t mean she’s older they are bigger types then some really tiny ones lol

Just one more question is the male pulling feathers out or not if it isn’t feathers being pulled out then it’s more because he wants to breed rather than agressive, if he is being agressive and pulling feathers then I think he was already paired to another girl before you got him

Any good luck

[HillbillyFinch]

So you have probably got abit of territtory issues aswell as him wanting to breed so badly you could seperate the female into the society’s cage because society’s shud be fine and just for a few days leave the Male zebra cage close to the female zebras neee cage so they get to talk to each other

Then I would get some nesting material in the Male zebras cage put a nest in their ( make one out of a cardboard box or anything etc) then move the perches around and add the female back into the cage hopefully they then might get along

And just because the hen is bigger it doesn’t mean she’s older they are bigger types then some really tiny ones lol

Just one more question is the male pulling feathers out or not if it isn’t feathers being pulled out then it’s more because he wants to breed rather than agressive, if he is being agressive and pulling feathers then I think he was already paired to another girl before you got him

Any good luck

The pair were the only two finches left when I got them but that doesn't mean they were paired. There was a nest in the store cage, but no eggs. They have two nests in their cage now. One is a tiny canary nest which they slept in for awhile and a covered wicker type finch nest. I have given him nesting material and mostly he blows/fans it out of the cave from his constant flying back and forth plus he has starting tearing up the newspaper and using that for nesting material. He has woven it through the bottom of the nest and been doing this for weeks. He is mating her at least 5 times a day and mostly she tries to get away from him and screams and she hasn't ever laid eggs in the nest. Yesterday after he mated her a few seconds later she was sitting on perch and he dives at her and slams her off the perch onto cage floor and she lands on her side so hard it kinda stunned her for a few minutes and she couldn't move.

Since no one responded to my message yesterday in desperation I got some dummy eggs and threw them in the nest hoping he would think she had laid and it would take the pressure off her. Well he stopped mating her after that and he preened her after he discovered eggs, but neither one of them are sitting on them. They are both trying to tear up paper today though. I gave them some airpopped popcorn yesterday which is his favorite and he is now carrying that into the nest. My neighbor's finches lined their nest with lettuce so I guess they will use anything. I don't know what to do long term. The female doesn't need to be injured by him. He's just mean! The store won't take him back and I don't know anyone who wants him. My neighbor's cage is too small to take in another and she has a mated pair already so if she got another male they would fight. Her birds are calm so I wouldn't want to mess that up. I don't know what to do.

[Fraza]

Really and I just had another thought she may be under 3 months old because it’s really starange that she isn’t laying eggs even though they have bred as it only takes like 3 seconds minimal for it to work (breed)



U could try selling him online and then getting one of ur neighbours chicks that are Male

[HillbillyFinch]

Really and I just had another thought she may be under 3 months old because it’s really starange that she isn’t laying eggs even though they have bred as it only takes like 3 seconds minimal for it to work (breed)



U could try selling him online and then getting one of ur neighbours chicks that are Male

If she was under 3 months old would she still have bright orange beak? I thought I had read somewhere that young zebras will have pink or black beaks. Is that true? I wish I could get a photo to show up on here so you could have a look at them. I appreciate all your help.

[wildbird]

It is cruel what you are doing to this female. Get the male out of there! Let him go mate with a hawk!

[Fraza]

HillbillyFinch yeah they can still have an orange beak the beak turns orange when they are quite young my fledglings are starting to change now and they hatched in later may so still under three month

She could be just past theee months and a lot of the time they don’t produce eggs this young

[CathyCraftz]

Separate the pair or buy her a new male or another female so she does not get lonely.

[HillbillyFinch]

Using dummy eggs seems to have worked. The male has stopped trying to mate her and is busy trying to build a nest by carrying in shredded paper I have given them along with putting popcorn, carrots and tomatoes in nest. The female is half heartedly nesting as she just isn't into the idea of babies it seems. Maybe this will buy me some time till I can find someone who will take him. I don't have room for a third cage in my small apartment. My other cage has a pair of society finches and I hesitate to put her in as the male will try to mate her and I worry she might be somewhat aggressive just by being a zebra and these little societies are as polite to each other as can be so I don't want to ruin their behavior. If I can find someone to give Dundee too I will just get some other female zebras to keep Heather from getting lonely.