Zebra Problems

iamtones · Post by **iamtones** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:32 pm

My Zebras have just started removing all the nesting material and 1 of 5 eggs has fallen out aswell.... why a they doing this? only about 3 weeks ago they tossed there 10day old hatchlings out, so I moved the cage to the front of the house where its more quiet. I try to keep cage visits to a minimum so i dont disturb them... Does anyone know whats going on?

Post by **Sally** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:46 pm

Zebras are usually pretty easy breeders, but even they can have problems. Are these young birds? Sometimes they will fail with a clutch or two till they get it figured out. It kind of sounds like that may be the case. Do they have extra nesting material available? With Zebras, you have to be careful with the nesting material--if they don't have enough, they may not be satisfied with the nest, but if they have too much material available, they are notorious for adding more and more material, burying the eggs in the process.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:35 am

Sally is spot on with this, I agree with what she said. sounds like young birds.

what you wrote there Sally takes most books a least a chapter to explain, well done.

iamtones · Post by **iamtones** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:04 am

thanks alot for that...

my Zebra pair a about 9 - 10 months old now... going by what the pet store sales person said... The 1st cluth I gave them heaps of nesting material and they went to town on the nest but not to overboard... this time around Im not putting in as much as the last....
Say I put more material in now... will they build over the eggs or what???

williep · Post by **williep** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:26 am

What has worked the best in my case is to remove excess nesting material once the 1st or second egg is laid. If they lay eggs they are usually satisfied that the nest is good enough, I then "trick" them in thinking that the nesting material has run out and they are content as this point and continue to incubate.

jamezyboo21 · Post by **jamezyboo21** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:31 am

i know i had a few zebras that were using the quail nest material and kept adding to there nest till eggs were starting to get covered up. they pretty much took all of the material but i checked everyday and pulled out some of the material in there nest so that theeggs werent buried and they seemed to be doing fine they still use the nests and are still laying eggs.

iamtones · Post by **iamtones** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:01 am

all is well it seems... I put more material in for them and they added to what was left of the nest... and now the pair a incubating

HepburnShoeMee · Post by **HepburnShoeMee** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:52 am

I was really upset when I saw my finches pushing a few eggs out of the nest. But I think they are really smart birds - maybe something was wrong with the eggs? Good luck.