Finch Death (HELP!!)

[Classroom Quail]

I found one of my zebra finches dead in the aviary today. She lived with 5 others in a large space. The bird was plucked bare (no feathers at all). There are no signs of rodents. Can anyone tell me what happened?

Also, now her mate is left alone and I don't have extra females. I'm worried he'll start a fight, and with my other pairs nesting, I can't afford that. What do I do? I really need help...

 

[Alaskan]

I would take the spare male and put him in a separate small cage right up against the big one.

He will need to be able to see and talk to the others, but even though he will be upset, you can't give in and keep him with the others. I think the risk of him messing with the nesting pairs is too great.

Horrid about your loss!

But, I can easily see that once she was dead, that the others "harvested" her for extra nesting material.


Are you sure there isn't a bully that is keeping the others away from the food or water?

I should mention that though I have experience with parrot breeding, I have never actually owned finches.

 

[Classroom Quail]

I'm going to pull the male out when I get home today. I haven't seen any bird keeping anyone away from food and water, but I'll keep an eye out just in case.

 

[Classroom Quail]

Someone mentioned it could be mites. Does that sound right?

 

[Alaskan]

Mites wouldn't pull out all of the feathers.

Mites would make the feathers looked chewed on.

Can you catch one of them, maybe the spare male, and look him over closely? Also, bedding and perches are another place where mites might hide. They are terribly tiny though, if your vision isn't very good, you might want to try looking with a hand lens.

 

[Classroom Quail]

I could try that. Are there other symptoms of mites I should look for in the remaining birds?

 

[Alaskan]

hummm........

I tried googling, and this site looked helpful.

http://www.finchniche.com/features_mites-lice.php

also,

Testing:

• Masses of mites on feathers may look like many grains of sand; fanning wing and tail feathers out against background light reveals mites as tiny dark spots.3
• Feather mites can be collected by placing an affected feather in 70% ethanol.5

good luck!

 

[Classroom Quail]

Good news: Everyone else is still ok as of today, so with some luck, that one might have just been a weird exception. I still don't know what happened to her, but at least everyone else seems alright. *knock on wood*

 

[Alaskan]

So nice to hear that the rest are OK