aggressive zebra draws blood

[ac12]

My zebras are pushing my patience again.
I have a pair of hens, that fostered a gouldian chick for me.
But today I found one of the hens badly plucked and bleeding.

She was plucked and bleeding in the right neck and shoulder area. I cleaned her off and put her in a private hospital cage.
This is the second time that this hen has been bloodied by her buddy. And it will be the last, as they are not going to be put together again. And this is unfortunate, as I had planned to keep this pair of hens as fosters, since they raised the gouldian chick. But not if the dominate hen will be this aggressive to the other hen.

They had been sitting on eggs, and I'm thinking that her buddy was frustrated that the eggs have not hatched, and took out her frustration on her.

I have seen males fight, but I have never seen blood in the male cages, like I have seen with this hen.

[cindy]

Gary, I have even seen 4 sibling female zenras have issues, plucking chasing. Also unrelated hens put together can get territorial, possesive over another cage mate, plucing and chasing others away.

I don't thinnk it is frustration over eggs that didn't hatch but more of a territorial issue. I would say get the injured girl healed and try to find a calm female for her to share fostering duties with.

Just wondering is the injured bird a pied or white/light? I see more aggression inflicted on zebras that are white/lighter than others in with them.

[dfcauley]

I never had any luck with zebras. They are just too agressive for me....
and unpredictable...

[ac12]

Cindy
The plucked hen is a grey.
These 2 "used to" get along fine before and after they fostered the gouldian chick. So was puzzled when the one turned against the other bird. Hence my guess at the eggs not hatching.

dfcauley
I have my zebras down to 2 birds per cage. I just could not arrive at a situation where I had more birds in a cage, with some degree of peace. There was always some fighting or chasing. Even with the 2 birds per cage, there was some juggling to arrive at compatible pairs. Their aggression sometimes has me to the point of wanting to get rid of them all.

[ac12]

I don't think the plucked hen will survive.
I found blood splattered around the hospital cage. I think she has been picking on her wound like a kid picking at a scab. If she does not stop, she will gradually loose more blood than her body can replace.
I covered the wound with blood stop powder, to stop the bleeding, but she has been picking at it again.

[cindy]

can you wrap it somehow? The blood stop might burn a bit to a very open wound. Try a bit of flour.

I think it is a territorial thing...I have so many zebras and even in the best of situations, two males or three males or two hens it is an alpha thing. Who get the perch or swing, claiming corners, plants. Most of the time when eggs don't hatch they just leave the nest and don't sit.

[Jossi]

Oh no, how sad! I really hope she pulls through

I gave up with Zebras as well, couldnt stand their fuzzing and fighting... like litle devils in disguise. Cute as can be, but fiesty as I dont know what

[ac12]

I was thinking of getting an OB to mate w my BF.
But after the blood, I'm having second thoughts.
I like the orange color, but I don't know if I can stand the aggression.

One would think I would learn from my experience w my zebras, past and present.

[cindy]

Gary it might be that sitting on the eggs stimulated the female into the mating mode. If she can hear males it may have caused her to see the other female as competition. She may be fine with a male.

[ac12]

Cindy
That might be it.
The male cage is right above her, so she would hear them. And the lone penguin male has been calling and singing for his buddy that I sold.

Odd but she raised a chick with the hen that she attacked.
I guess mating w a male takes priority over a female buddy.

The hen survived the night w a heat lamp on her cage, and I did not see any blood this morning, so maybe she might pull thru.