Zebras aggression is driving me nuts

[ac12]

My hens are driving me nuts.
I move some around and they are not only chasing them, but the prior birds are attacking the new birds. Not much that I can do about rearranging the perches in a smallish cage. I am down to considering 2 birds per cage. Any more than that and I have chasing/fighting.

[Vargur]

are the "prior" birds not just showing the new birds: "who's the boss"?
And when that's clear they will settle and be friends?

[Ameza]

How many do you have in a cage now?

I have had 4 females together and 4 males together in a cage for a while now. The females never fight, but there are sometimes little squabble with the males, rather bad for the first 2 days or so but then things calmed down. It's actually more easy going now than when I had two of them alone in a cage.

Best of luck, I know how annoying it is when they keep fighting

[ac12]

Yes , it is the resident bird(s) that are picking on the newcomers.

BUT in one case the newcomers are a pair of white zebras. Based on past experience, I don't like to mix whites with anything else, as they seem to attract aggression. But in this case I'm out of space, so I put them with a penguin hen. 2 whites to 1 penguin. So I figured they would out number the penguin, but that did not seem to make a difference. The whites were in a cage by themselves, so did not have to "fight it out" with others. Especially one that after weaning was put in with another white, so she has not been in an aggressive environment, and probably does not know how to be aggressive...yet.

[moonrise]

I haven't had a bit of luck keeping more than one pair in a cage. Even after giving them time to settle down, they still fuss, sometimes relentlessly. Having them in a huge cage doesn't seem to make any difference. They hunt each other down when they're in Bully Mode. Grrr!

My males are the most aggressive, arguing with each other even if there are more females than there are males. I guess each male thinks ALL the females belong to him. Woo hoo! I have my own little harem!

I just had to order another case of 6 cages.

A little over a year ago, I had one cage with four zebra finches.

Now I have almost 20 cages, 18 zebras (2 pairs on eggs), 3 societies, 2 diamond doves, and am supposed to get a pair of cockatiels this morning!

Zebra finches in particular should come with warning labels:

Warning: These gorgeous but pushy little birds may become addictive, and may take over your home!

[Dan]

I seem to hear more people talk about aggression problems with zebras than any other finch. Maybe it's time these bossy little birds be put on the same level as Cubans, saffrons and ect

[kenny]

hi
you dont say if you have put nests in with them,if you have take them out and the aggression should peter out.other than that you just have to wait till they have found out who the boss is and they will settle down eventually.but these birds are notorious for there aggression!you could always change to societies i have had them 8 to a nest and not one argument

ken

[Vargur]

I dont know what maniac finches you all have, (lol)
but my finhces are such a good friends!
We have 7 males together in 100x45x50cm cage and they are all friends.
Never arguing or squabbling, just best friends.

And we have a smaller cage with 6 females,
same with them, never arguing or squabbling..

and we have cage with young zebras and few older once.
it is 100x50x50cm.. a little squabble, but thats about it
only "get of my perch.." thing..

video of the males

and the males are allways like that

BFF



(but there have been a squabble few times, but nothing serious)

[debbie276]

Cute picture!!

[ac12]

Vargur,
I wish mine had the mellow personality that yours have.
I only had 2 like that, and one died.

I think that some of that aggressiveness comes from the parents. I had a VERY aggressive hen, and all her chicks were just as aggressive as she was.

Sometimes what was a mellow chick TURNS aggressive.
I had a few that turned on their parents just as they were weaning. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. The ungrateful turds. Gee that sounds like some teenagers I knew.

I think that the aggression also develops when the chicks are put in with aggressive birds. They learn to be aggressive as a survival mechanism.

When I get real frustrated at the zebras aggression, I start thinking of taking ALL of them down to my local bird shop. But then I remember how much effort I put into trying to get a penguin clutch.