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Excellent post, lot of good info in there. I've got a non-hookbill related question. Now, I have two sun conures which in my opinion are loud, crazy, and nobody should ever own them except for me because I am a crazy bird lady. That's my crazy bird lady opinion though  . Anyway, I'm perfectly capable of keeping those dudes happy. My question is with these GOTDANG ZEBRA FINCHES I have. I had 5, and they were picking on one another. So I got them a very large aviary/flight cage (It's way big, like 5 foot tall and about the width of a standard doorway). That solved the problem for a while, as it seemed that one bird in particular, Rusty, was picking on one of the others. So I gave Rusty to a friend who has Society Finches and he put Rusty in with them, and he says they all get along great. Now, I'm left with 4, which I thought would be ideal since it's two male/female pairs and they tend to stay in their little pair bonds. However, one female has decided to be a huge pain in the rear end lately, and she has started picking feathers out of the heads of the other ones! I even caught her with a feather in her mouth! Her name is Angelina and she has perfect feathers, now the other three look raggedy. My question is, what do I do? I'm worried that if I give up Angelina, her mate will become the "odd man out". But I'm also worried that she'll continue to pick on him if I keep them together but separated, because she does pick on him anyway. I also don't want to have to buy another cage/have two cages to clean. They have a ton of space in the cage, a swing, toys (which they DO play with, regardless of what you read online about finches), at least 4 natural perches to choose from, and multiple food and water bowls. I also read that you can make a little hideaway for the picked-on birds to hide behind, so I hung up a towel that hides one of the perch from the rest of the cage. And they do like to hide behind and play with the towel. My question is - what should I do to get them to stop picking on each other? All the options seem to suck. How can I keep freaking Sun Conures happy but not finches which are supposed to be easy to care for? I just want them all to be happy.
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Oct 26, 2012 01:56
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 11:43 |
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Scary Ned posted:So yeah, give your birds something to do. Thanks for sharing! I shall get some more poo poo to put in the cage I've always been kind of wary putting things in the cage that they may see as a nest/nesting material. Because they are VERY nesty, they'll try to weave anything through the bars of the cage to make a nest, and did I mention that one of them, and the finch Rusty I gave away, were the product of a hidden nest I allowed to hatch?So is it okay for them to be really nesty and lay eggs? If it stops them from picking on each other I don't mind, I just don't want anything to go wrong. I've seen them lay eggs then peck them open and eat them.
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Oct 26, 2012 13:42
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Amaya posted:BE CAREFUL THOUGH!! Quakers are HIGHLY illegal in some states. Past the point of simply fining you, I've read some states will kill the bird outright Kansas in particular has a weird law about Quakers. They're illegal unless you fill out a special form from Wildlife and Parks. But that special form doesn't exist so... it's kind of a stupid loophole where they remain illegal. One time I saw a lady on Craigslist trying to get rid of one, and when I told her they were illegal she threw an internet fit at me telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. Then she changed her story and told me that she actually lived in Missouri. Also, I think it was last year that Kansas had it's first documented breeding pair of Quakers, near Winfield
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Oct 26, 2012 22:08
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Here's a list: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine (legal with permit, but it's a bitch to get), New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Wyoming
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dopaMEAN posted:Since you mentioned that Steve poops on people, I have a question (maybe it could go in the OP): Can birds be toilet trained? Is it just some species? Are they easy to train, like cats and rabbits, or is it really difficult? Is there a standard way to do it? You can potty train birds. Rio (Sun Conure) would fly back to his cage when he had to poop. Malibu (retarded Sun Conure) is incapable of learning. Seriously she has some mental issues. So the answer is - yes you can potty train some birds but probably not EVERY bird. And this is just my opinion but after spending $800 at the vet to save Rio's life after my roommate's cat attacked him, I say yes, birds with cats is crazy.
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Oct 26, 2012 23:38
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They can hold it in, they hold it in all night. Birds don't poop when they're asleep, that's why they have a giant crap in the morning Also, Lories have liquid poo poo because they eat a liquid diet, maybe it was a Lory. Or your friend's bird might have just been sick and/or on a lovely diet.
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Oct 27, 2012 03:14
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Could have been diet. Parrots don't really eat many seeds in the wild which is the bulk of most commercial parrot food mixes. Kinda like cats and dogs don't eat corn but cat and dog food is 95% corn. It's cheap and people don't know better or don't care.
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Oct 27, 2012 03:28
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 11:43 |
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Hey bird crazies, I am looking to sell my Pak-O-Bird parrot backpack. I made a thread in SA mart: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3533766 (Mods told me it was OK to post this)
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Feb 14, 2013 03:44
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