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Claire Reed

Hi, New Member

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Hi, I have recently acquired what I thought were 3 pairs of Zebra Finches but after a week I have come to realise I have 4 males and 2 females. Two sets have paired up but the left over 2 males are not getting on and one has had his feathers pecked so I put him in a cage on his own. I would like to know how long it will take for his feathers to grow back and will I be able to integrate him back into the aviary with a new female. The one remaining lone male I intend to get another female for him. If anyone can help, Thanks.

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welcome to the zebra finch addiction :yahoo:when ever you introduce birds you will always get a bit off fighting that just how zebbies are!!!!.  if I put birds into my outside flight I try add more then one at a time but my flights are big enough for them to get out of the way of the established birds.. when I am grouping in double breeders/wire doubles or internal flight cages.. again I try more then one bird at a time but do just put one in sometimes as that's all I have.  a trick you could try is  to take the current occupants out for half an hour or so!!! swap perches around move the drinkers and seed/ grit dishes and cuttle to different parts of the cage then add all the birds back in together.. the established birds tend to be more interested with finding food and water an working out where there fav roosting perch has gone then be bothered about starting a fight. something else that works is when putting them back in give them a treat??? nice piece of millet or some fresh greens. think distraction is the key... no matter what you do try only add birds when you have the time to spend a couple or 3 hours been able to keep an eye on them... no matter what you try you will get squabbles that's just zebs:pardon:.. good luck

Andy

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Thanks, I have decided to get a couple more females to balance out the pairs, and I will certainly swap things around to distract them from falling out. Good sound advice, cheers

 

Claire

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Hi Claire and welcome to the Forum.

When you have sorted your birds out you might want to try a trick explained to us by member Emmy- Tie parcel string in bunches of strands around the cage/aviary. This will hopefully distract any feather pluckers by them going at the string instead. And if they get a bit off it can go into the nesting material.

Andy 

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