Male finch attacking

[Marie Gemmell]

Help please ! My baby finches ( zebra's) just came out of their nest and my
male finch is attacking one of the babies! It is an all white baby could
that be why ? What should I do ? Right now I have the male separated from my
female and their 2 babies but it seems pretty distressed !

[Xerophyte]

Hmmm... I've raised several pairs of zebra finches in the past (I'm down to
one pair which often produces white offspring... pity they can't do tan...)

Have these parents been good breeders in the past, or is this their first
attempt?

If the finches are too young (thus they start "doing it" too early), they
will make usually end up as bad parents, abandon eggs or chicks, and/or
attack chicks before the proper time (after 4 months and they're all in the
same cage, territory becomes a problem as the parents kick the babies out,
wanting them to fend for themselves whilest the parents go back to make
another batch!) This happened to me once, so I had to seperate the "pair"
to two different pet stores. (I only hope the aggressive tendencies don't
continue with the new mate).

I'm amazed, if my guess was correct, that you got this far! Most dads (who
do attack the offspring after a certain point) wait a couple of months after
the chicks finally go outside the nestbox.

If they're a current pair, I dunno.

You might want to put more food in their cage, that might help.

Marie Gemmell wrote in message ...

[Marie Gemmell]

I have no idea how old my adult finches are.This was my finches second batch
of eggs the first batch got knocked down by my stupid teenage kitten.
Needless to say I promptly put the pair in a bigger more secure cage! My
kitten has pretty much been banned from the house because she is so bad !
But anyway, I tried putting the male finch back in with the female and
chicks and he started attacking, plucking out feathers from my female bird.
He seemed to leave the chicks alone but after a few minutes of him plucking
my female bird I removed him and put him in a separate cage again, I don't
want bald unhappy birds ! I may keep trying to put my male back in with the
others as I think it would be hard for the female to feed two chicks alone.
The chicks should be able to eat on their own soon ( I think ) and then I
will separate the chicks from the parents. But I don't want anymore chicks !
4 finches is enough for me ! Their cage is only about 4' wide by 2' high by
18" deep. Not very big, but they have lots of fresh food and water. Thank
You !

Xerophyte wrote in message <7i4s97$2d...@enews3.newsguy.com>...

[LL314158]

hi,
If you don't want anymore chicks you'll have to keep the male away from
the female, but she will still lay eggs... even tho, they won't hatch... mine
do all the time....sometimes the female will lay herself to death.. really....
the feather plucking is normal mating with the female, sometimes the male does
get toooo rough and has to be taken out... have done this several times wth
mine...but as soon as the chicks are weaned remove them cause the male will
attack them out of spite... why I don't know, but they are really mean to the
babies..
good luck with your finches., hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.....if
you ever want to talk finches, e-mail me directly...LL

[J M]

Marie Gemmell wrote in message ...
>Help please ! My baby finches ( zebra's) just came out of their nest and my
>male finch is attacking one of the babies! It is an all white baby could
>that be why ?

It could be the male is plucking the white chicks feathers because he wants
to start another nest, (they love to use white feathers to line there nest).
I would remove the male until the chicks are fully weaned and maybe remove
the nest for a while when you return the male. The rule is 3 pairs and up
is recommended in a single cage to keep the peace, (Zebra's a very social
birds). Two pairs alone will fight. The best form of birth control is just
remove the eggs when laid.

[jo brundige]

I raised finches for about 30 years . How old are these babies. When the
babies are at the age where the hen is laying again, you have this
problem.
You can have TWO finches in a cage together...or...you can have FIVE OR
MORE in a cage together. If you have 3 or 4 in a cage ...one will kill
the rest. Since the male is the strongest he will kill even the female.
If you raise a lot of finches and put 5__6__7__8 or 30 in the same caged
area, they are fine. Three or four just won't make it. In fact,
sometimes the one will kill the rest and then die himself from
exhaustion. If your cage is LARGE, get another pair and put in with them
so there will be 6. When the babies get out on their own, put them back
in pairs. This is the truth, honest!! Jo

[Marie Gemmell]

Thank you, I think maybe I need a bigger cage and another pair of finches.
Do they need to be kept in male/female pairs ? Or can I just have females ?
I don't know what sex my baby finches are yet and I'm not sure how I will
tell with the white one, Do male finches always have darker orange beaks?
Right now the babies are in one cage and the parents in another. No nest in
the parents cage as I don't want to encourage them to lay more eggs, will my
female get eggbound with no nest ?

[Marie Gemmell]

I don't know how old the babies are, but I have separated them from their
parents and they seem to be doing fine. I could go get another female and
put them all back in the same cage so I have the finch mess contained to one
area, ( they are kinda messy ! ) what would be a good size cage for 5 birds
? I am thinking of building my own. Should I give them nests to roost in or
should I leave out the nests ? I'm thinking that I will just remove any eggs
that get laid because 5 or 6 would be plenty of finches for me. Thank You !

[1dluv...@gmail.com]

On Friday, May 21, 1999 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Marie Gemmell wrote:
> Help please ! My baby finches ( zebra's) just came out of their nest and my
> male finch is attacking one of the babies! It is an all white baby could

[amazo...@gmail.com]

hi, so i have this baby finch one or two month old, who got injured now his parents are attacking him, so i put him in a separate cage. now the female is trying to hatch other eggs, should i separate her from her babies when they hatch and are grown enough. it seems that they doesnt like more than one in the cage. and how can i know if the baby finch is female or male? i have so m any questions pff

[xpen...@gmail.com]

On Thu, 31 Dec 2015 10:29:04 -0800 (PST), amazo...@gmail.com wrote:

>hi, so i have this baby finch one or two month old, who got injured now his parents are attacking him, so i put him in a separate cage. now the female is trying to hatch other eggs, should i separate her from her babies when they hatch and are grown enough. it seems that they doesnt like more than one in the cage. and how can i know if the baby finch is female or male? i have so m any questions pff

I think what the parents are doing is simply an instinctive behavior
that you see throughout the animal world.

[xin...@gmail.com]

I have 2 questions. I have had 2 finches for a year and a half. A first the female laid a clutch a month for about 10 months. We got one baby from the first clutch, then after he learned to fly, we gave him to the pet store. Out of the other clutches we got 1 other, but it died after 3 days. She finally started laying again, after another 10 months )But it was not fertilized) Anyways, my fist question is, is this normal?

My second questions is that I think the male is pecking all the feathers off my female! The back of her neck is bald and she no longer has any tail feathers. I'll separate them for a month or 2 and she'll grow some back, but when I remove the separator, he attacks her again. We have nesting material, a fluffy toy, everything I've read about to deter him, but it doesn't seem to work. We were even trying to give her extra feather growth medicine, but that didn't help, either. Any ideas?

[jabba...@gmail.com]

Your cat is just doingvwhat cats naturally do. It is up to YOU to put the bird cage out of his reach. When I have birds & cats I find hanging the bird cage from the ceiling via a swag hook works great. (A swag hook is usually used to hang light fixtures). It's win/win for just a few bucks for the hook & the chain.
But PLEASE don't ban your cats for instinctive behaviour. They are sentient creatures the same as humans, and they feel your rejection. Don't stop giving them your love because you brought birds in. It's nit their fault.
like I said....try the swag ceiling hook & chain. It works very well.

[harry.k...@gmail.com]

[austin...@gmail.com]

My male finch is attacking another male finch what should I do

[premdroma...@gmail.com]

Iam also did this