Help! I am loosing my zebra's

[lisalambourne]

Hi I have zebra's as some may remember me, well 2 of them have died two days appart, I looked on here for help and noticed the list of toxic trees and noticed that hoursechestnut is on the toxic list. I hung their cage from the branch of a hoursechestnut in my garden and know for sure that they were eating the leaves, though that was at least a month ago now. Have i poisened them? and is there anything I can give the others so they don't die. They have almost no feathers at the top of their beaks and one has no tail feathers left....Help any ideas??? xx lisa xx

Thought I had better add that their seed box got wet, could that have hurt them?

[dfcauley]

Oh I am so sorry. It is so hard to see your finches die. I just went through that last week with two of my gouldians.
It could be the tree, but I don't think it would take a month for them to get sick and die from that. If their seed got wet, I would think it could possible be that they have picked up some kind of bacteria from that.

Do you have any antibiotic for birds that you could give them? I know alot of people don't like to use them, but in this case it might help.

Hopefully someone else will chime in soon with some adivce for you. Please keep us posted and good luck.

[Sally]

If the seed box got wet, and the seeds soured, that could make them very sick. When sprouting seeds, there is a danger of the seeds souring and developing bacteria, so that may be what happened with your birds. So sorry for your loss, and I would move the others away from that tree and clean out the seed box.

[poohbear]

Fungal spores can form on damp seed overnight and can be deadly to birds.Get rid of any seed that has not been kept dry.While birds in the wild may pick up these spores while feeding,they move from plant to plant and are not eating from one source...so quantities consumed will be small.Unlike captive birds feeding from one pot.
I don't think the leaves will have caused your problems...
Paul.