Plucking feathers...help!

[jebediah]

My 4 zebs have been together for a week now. They were doing okay with the occasional perch squabbles and establishing the pecking order. But I found my Dandy this evening being plucked! He worked so hard to grow his little tail feathers and now they're getting plucked while he's eating. There's also a balding spot on the back of his head.

I already had multiple food and water dishes in the cage so there's no need to fight over it. I just switched the 2 main dishes to larger double seed cups that came with the cage to see if that helps. What else can I do to help? I thought about splitting them up again but I wasn't sure if that would just be 2 steps backward.

I plan on adding 2 more zebs but I don't know if I should with these issues already coming out? I feel like I let my boys down

[Sally]

Birds often will have territorial problems when the number in the cage runs between 3 and 5. With 6 in the same cage, it seems that there are enough birds that they don't worry so much about it. Check out some of the suggestions here:

http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/reduci ... ession.php