Baby Bird

[LadyCrow]

I haven't been on in a minute, but I thought I'd give an update and ask for some advice.

This contains no pictures but still may be a bit graphic.

So not long after we got our zebras, the girls started laying eggs, which would fall and break on the bottom of the cage. This seemed to agitate the girls and cause fighting, so my husband convinced me to put in a nest. We had to babies hatch on mother's day, then had another hatch way after that. Our male was mating with two of our three girls and all three took turns caring for the babies.

We thought everything was fine but when the two oldest were almost big enough to leave the nest, I checked on them one morning to find two of the three were crushed to death. The three adults often all climbed in together but it all seemed fine. My husband said he checked them the day before, but the surviving chick, which was one of the older ones, had to been in that situation at least for a bit. I had to cut him out of the nest, then peel him away from the corpses of the other two. His whole underside was raw and weepy. My husband and I sat on the floor of the kitchen for who knows how long, the baby nuzzling into my stomach for warmth, trying to figure out what to do. We decided he wouldn't have much of a chance of survival, so hubs held and petted him as I started to set up a make-shift gas chamber. Then once it was ready and I went to take the chick from hubs, he begged me to try and save it.

I set up a folded up handkerchief in the cage and placed it in shallow tupperware and put that at the bottom of the cage. No one liked the tupperware, so we let the cloth on the cage bottom.

The 3 adults still fed the baby and covered it up with the kerchief, but would not lay with it, they perched above him instead. I physically checked the chick over daily. We eventually moved the food and water to the very bottom, in case the parents weren't doing enough.

We're happy to say the chick is doing a lot better now, though not 100%. His underside is still naked, but dry and unirritated. He started eating occasionally on his own and started drinking on his own while the parents continued to feed him. That was not long after we set him up on the cage bottom. Maybe about 3 weeks ago, he started perching. It was a real struggle for him at first to flap up to the perches, but he got up there, and went back to the cloth when he wanted his parents to feed him. Now he flies around just as well as the rest, though it takes a bit more effort. He no longer requires his parents to feed him. He's a little more fearful than the adults, but is more willing to be handled, which I still count as a plus.

A couple days ago he started to show feathering that points to him being male. He's very quiet though; haven't heard him sing at all. He still has a black beak and mostly still looks like a fledgling, so I don't know if that feathering is normal.

We were thinking of separating the males into their own cage, but we don't know if that would cause any of them extra stress or what would be the best timing. Also, the girls /never/ stopped laying eggs, and since the removal of the nest, fighting as started up again. They're attacking each other as well as Big Daddy. The chick doesn't show any signs of being picked on, but some of the girls are missing patches and Big Daddy is missing a large patch covering his back.

We've been focusing a lot on our birds almost exclusively since Mother's Day, but needless to say we're nervous about the whole situation. Now that the baby is more-or-less healthy, we don't know what means to take to improve the situation for him as well as the flock as a whole. We know the current situation isn't ideal, but really would like input as to how to improve it in general. We want what will improve the baby's health, but we also want to reduce the stress and fighting of the females. Big Daddy still seems like a happy little bird, but is half bald. They seem to be picking him faster than he can grow feathers in, which is obviously not okay.

Please help.

[lovezebs]

LadyCrow

First of all, please refresh my memory as to how many birds there are in total and their genders. Also what is the size of your cage?

[LadyCrow]

There were 3 females and 1 male originally. now 3 females and 2 males. I can't remember the size of the cage, but I remember 5 - 6 were the maximum number of zebras I could keep in there comfortably. We would love to split them in to two cages (second cage is the same size as the one they're all in now), but I want to make sure to minimize any stress.

We never planned for any babies, and it's obvious we've made a number of mistakes with this. I really want to fix this.

[Sally]

For some reason, less than 6 in a cage often leads to squabbling, and Zebras tend to be squabblers anyway. I would suggest putting all the girls in one cage and the boys in the other and see if that helps. You may have to put the cages where the birds don't see each other, as you will be trying to curb the breeding/territorial behavior. The hens may continue to lay eggs for a bit, but that should slowly cease. Do not give either cage a nest, nests just encourage breeding/territorial behavior. Best of luck with this.

[lovezebs]

LadyCrow

Another solution would be to make the two cages into one bigger one.

REMOVE THE NESTS and leave them out, like Sally said.
Zebras can sleep on a perch like any other bird, and don't need nests for sleeping, only for breeding.

Add lots of fake greenery to the cage ($ store vines, etc.)and create little private areas where they can get away from each other. Put in some swings, a foraging box, daily baths, maybe a mirror or two. Just some things to keep their minds off each other.

I think you will find that things will begin to settle down somewhat once they have something else to concetrate on.

Wishing the best of luck.

[LadyCrow]

Thank you everyone for your input.

We'll try caging them separately first and see how well that goes.

We have not put another nest in. I knew they didn't need them, but husband convinced me to put one in shortly after we got them. We won't be doing that again.

We've been meaning to get some fake vines and whatnot, but hadn't. I didn't know that would help. They have swings, a mirror, and a couple other hanging toys. They had a foraging perch and a kabob, but I need to replace them. and we provide a bath every 2 - 3 days. We also throw in a ball of crumpled newspaper every once in awhile since they seem to like to tear that up. Is that ok? and what is a foraging box?

[lovezebs]

LadyCrow

A foraging box, in my case is a good sized tupperware container, which can be easily replaced and washed.

In it, you can place all sorts of treasures, stones, shells, twigs, wild grass heads, some seeds, some treats, dry leaves , alfalfa, hay, bits of spray millet, dry mealworms, bits of crumpled paper, pine cones, chick weed, bird grit, tree bark, small branches.... just use your imagination.

Change things out every few days to keep things interesting.

Most birds really enjoy these, and can keep busy in there for extended periods of time.

The fake greens, also keep them busy, as they like to fuss with them and arrange them and pull on them. They also can be changed and washed or discarded when they get dirty. They are reletively inexpensive if bought at the $ store, and all my birds love them, even using them as swings and sleeping places.