Bonded Zebs

[nofred]

Since acquiring 3 Zebras. 2 hens & 1 cock, I have not been able to tell which female is the right mate! The previous owner had the birds thrust on her and did not get too involved with learning about them. Probably why she so readily gave them to me. She told me 1 male had died just before Christmas. I assumed the bond came with him sleeping with the same hen every night? But when I had trouble with loosing chicks, I blamed the male, so I moved him into the other hens cage. He promptly started fixing up her nest and slept with her in it. He also seemed to calm down considerably. The first hen however never calmed down. So I moved him back. Sleeps with her and mated with her.
Can he have 2 bonds? Or should I just get another male?
Great little characters to befriend, but I just don't know their behavior yet.

[kenny]

hi
if they are happy and they have mated i would wait until any chicks appear before buying anything else to put in there you just might upset the apple cart everyone on this site knows how difficult it is to get harmony with zebs so i would wait and see you are very lucky they are not fighting all the time....of course they all could have started out as nest mates before they came to you so they may all be related ...but dont worry that will not harm the birds just this once if they are related,when they are in the wild they dont seem to bother who they mate with.the only reason breeders split them up is prolonged inter breeding can lead to deformaties.just wait to see if the eggs hatch,wait till the chicks are weaned then you can split them and maybe introduce fresh blood into the mix

ken

[ac12]

In my limited experience, zebras do not bond.
They will mate with any zebra that they are paired up with.

Now if you swap mates, then you might have a different situation.
I did that and one hen was VERY aggressive to the new male. She did not want the stranger in her nest that she had with the prior male. So I put the males back with their original partners.

Fast forward many months, after 3 clutches (some duds) I separated the zebras for several months. When I decided to breed them again, I swapped the mates, and they went at it like they did not have prior mates.

Now that they mated, and you probably have chick on the way, you might as well leave the male there, and get the 2nd hen a mate of her own.

[tobyneilson]

I agree just get a 2nd cock for the lonely hen, you can never have to many zebs

[Vargur]

when we swap mates, we never let the finches meet the new mate right away..
I dont know how to explain it..
we take the old pair, seperate them, let the birds be with other birds
for few days (1-2 weeks) and then put the birds we want to pair up, together.
hope you know what I mean

[nofred]

That's great advice. Thanks so much. I really want to learn about Zebras and want the best for them. I'm really glad I found this site. Really good bunch of helpful folks from everywhere!
Today I put my 2 large cages together, one on top of the other, and put the 2 hens & male all together again. Both hens were nuzzling up to the male at different times. The aggressive hen, Bonnie, chased the fawn around a bit, but didn't really attack her. Tonight Bonnie is back to sleeping with Clyde, and fawn is in her nest box alone but peaceful.
I think I will be getting her another mate & splitting them up again in the future, Hope the squabbles don't start again too soon.
Thanks again for the great posts.

[kenny]

hi
this idea of splitting them is ideal,the problem is the resident bird wants all the others to know who is boss,if you move the problem bird for a couple of weeks it will come back in at the bottom of the pecking order so it should not be as much trouble as it was its a big problem with dominant birds....the worst ones with a bad temper make that fizzing sound when they are chasing others,that means they need removing for a few days then put back in as the underdog......i hope this makes sense to you,it does work if there are trouble makers all the time because it stops them from pulling feathers out and sometimes fatalities

ken