Zeb question

Jamieson · Post by **Jamieson** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:08 pm

Hi all new to the forums, fairly new to finches.

I have a rather large indoor flight/aviary holding 4 pairs, all but 1 of the pairs are related (offspring of original pair). I want to breed the unrelated pair and am wondering a few things.

1) should I remove the breeding pair from the cage and set them up in a smaller breeding cage? or should I remove the the other 3 pairs and keep the pair I want to breed in their regular cage? I do have another cage with room to accommodate the 3 pairs.

2) if I remove the breeding pair to their own cage when could I put them back in their regular cage? When can I add the offspring? Same idea question if I remove the 3 other pairs.

3) what problems could I expect by doing any of this and is it actually worth it, thinking more so of the birds and less of myself on this one (i.e. is it going to cause problems in the cage), stresses, fighting if and when I can return the breeding pair and their young or other 3 pairs.

I want to keep them all together, along with any future offspring, so if it is not something that would be in the best interest of the birds and their happiness there is no reason for me to do it.

I searched a bit, probably not enough, so any help I can get is appreciated. (Ill gladly eat the 'search lecture' if you have toss me some pearls of advice)

Thanks in advance - J

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:26 am

what size is your indoor flight and what type of finches do you have?
if you can give us the answers to these then people will be able to help you a lot more as different species require different things to some extent eg space/food

Jamieson · Post by **Jamieson** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:31 am

I have zebras (sry got lazy in subject line with Zeb). Cage is approximately 66" long x 48" deep x 60" high.

Post by **Sally** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:38 am

Great size flight and plenty of room for 4 pairs of Zebras. Where the problem comes in is that they are all related. Zebras (and all other species) have no morals, they will breed with their daughters, sons, brothers, sisters. Pretty soon, you could have a flight full of inbred birds. If you want to keep this from happening, you would need to have either an all-male or all-female flight, or remove all eggs as they appear. I have never tried to keep a lot of Zebras in a large flight/aviary, perhaps someone who has will chime in with their experience.

Jamieson · Post by **Jamieson** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:46 am

Thanks for the reply Sally. What I am trying to find out here is what to do with the one pair in the cage that is not related to the other 3. I want to breed that pair and need some info on the best way to do that. In no way would I ever consider breeding the 3 related pairs.

Basically what I need to know is should I remove the unrelated pair from the cage to breed them? If I remove them to breed when can I put them and their offspring back into the cage (still in nest, fledgling, juvenile, adult)?

Post by **Sally** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:52 am

I would think that removing the original pair to their own cage would be best. When breeding, the parents tend to feather pluck other birds, especially their own young, for nesting material, so this would keep the other birds from being plucked. Also, Zebras tend to pile in nests together, making a nest full of eggs too crowded--when the eggs hatch, the babies may get squashed. You would not want to move the parents and the next clutch of babies back into the flight until the babies are weaned and fully independent.

Jamieson · Post by **Jamieson** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:28 pm

Thanks again Sally, that is exactly what I needed to know.

gomer · Post by **gomer** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:05 am

There is often good reason for breeding related birds.A related male and females features can often compliment each other.Sometimes unrelated birds are not available.In nature fathers and daughters mate all the time.Farmers breed livestock together.And no doubt somewhere in the world cultures do it.In our society we find it immoral,And in many cases I agree.As long as It doesn't continue for a prolonged time i don't see a problem,as long as you are not trying to start a new mutation.