The dispute to end all disputes

[sparrowsong98]

I am at my wits end with the birds! All day they squabble and yell and hiss and chase each other. The hen is plucking her mate's wing feathers, the male (who bites my as well, just like a poorly trained hookbill), pecks at her, and worst of all, it has been like this since June. How can I make them stop?

[Sheather]

Get a different species, zebras can be a mess. Some just do best in a large flock in an aviary setting and will always be a problem as a pair in a cage.

Alternately, adjacent but separate cages. Let them see, not touch each other.

[cindy]

Separate them if one is being plucked picked on or chased it causes stress, stress changes the ph in the gut and yeast can start.

[lovezebs]

sparrowsong98

Have you got them set up for breeding?
Nest, nesting materials?
Breeding diet?

[paul-inAZ]

Just the nature of the beast -at least many of them. They can be very aggressive.
Short of separating them I wouldn't bet very much on training that aggression out of them.

[Fraza]

I split my cage in half once and put my male society in with a male zebra and my female society in with the female zeb and they seemed to be fine after this I opened the cage full waited about a week

[Fraza]

Also I think letting them out for flight time can help because they will call to each other (surely this is bonding ?)

[sparrowsong98]

cindy they have been separated 4 times with out help. lovezebs no. I took out the nest because the hen was very aggressive about the nest.

[sparrowsong98]

Sheather I am thinking of expanding and getting 2 society pairs. Would that help or would they just attack the societies?

[sparrowsong98]

Fraza that is more of a mess. The hen doesn't leave the cage and her mate teases her to get her out and makes her very very mad.

[cindy]

Sheather I am thinking of expanding and getting 2 society pairs. Would that help or would they just attack the societies?

no it will not societies should be kept separate from other species unless you know they are free of the 3C's.... they carry all kinds of nasty stuff that does not effect their species/young but will harm and even bring down the young and adults of other species.

Aggression is usually not toned down and birds can not be made to "like" who we pick for them... suggest you separate and consider other possible mates for them.

Soscieties are passive and zebras are pushy and aggressive and could make life miserable for the societies... they will target if aggressive a more passive bird.

[cindy]

if you are giving egg food daily cut it back to none or once a week... the egg food protein daily keeps the birds especially the male in breeding mode constantly... he may be wanting to breed and she is not ready.... sometimes it is not the birds but the environment, diet that can cause this... when not breeding zebras do not need daily egg food, they need it when molting and raising young...you can add egg food back daily when young hatch. You can provide daily sprouted or chitted seed/millet strands. Limit fatty seeds, they can spike hormone levels also. Add a pelleted diet to the seed.

Remove nest when not breeding... try stress perches for the birds to get away and rest alone in a private space.

[lovezebs]

sparrowsong98

You could add some fake greens to your cage/flight, to offer them some hidden nooks and corners to get away from one another. Also a foraging box, containing some dry seed heads, dry leaves, sticks, hay, bits of spray millet, etc. can keep them busy and doing something else rather than fighting.

If all else fails, and if you're not interested in breeding them, then I would seperate them into two cages.

At times you run into two birds who simply do not like each other and there's nothing you can do to change that.

Adding Societies to the combination, is not going to help, they will just get picked on by the Zebras.

[Fraza]

Okay sorry haven't got any help then

[sparrowsong98]

lovezebs, you know, I was on vacation, and they were down on a table in front of an East facing window for 2 weeks. When I came home, there was much more war than the typical picking that Addy does (a few feathers leave macho when she gets bored). So, I cleaned them and put them back in their normal spot, and no more fighting! Could the heat coming through the window have been stressing them out?