Unstable aggression in male Zebra finch

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finchbreeder
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5 months old is old enough for a Zeb to breed. But she may not be in breeding condition. This can be helped along by adding egg shell and green seeding grass to their diet. (If you do not already feed these) These foods are good for any laying hens anyway. It sounds like you have a "very determined to be the boss and have his own way" Zeb on your hands. If you have a smaller cage you can put him in, near the main cage. That would be the go. His Society friend will still be able to be near him, while enjoying the larger space. He will not be able to be a pest while still having company.
LML
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Charles_Mu
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finchbreeder wrote: 16 Mar 2021, 10:27 5 months old is old enough for a Zeb to breed. But she may not be in breeding condition. This can be helped along by adding egg shell and green seeding grass to their diet. (If you do not already feed these) These foods are good for any laying hens anyway. It sounds like you have a "very determined to be the boss and have his own way" Zeb on your hands. If you have a smaller cage you can put him in, near the main cage. That would be the go. His Society friend will still be able to be near him, while enjoying the larger space. He will not be able to be a pest while still having company.
I deeply apologize, only just now noticed there was a second page to the thread, so I hadn't seen the reply. Alright, so if you think isolating him is the right move, then I'll do so. That said, that does bring up another topic; upon his removal, there would be only three zebras again in the aviary. Except this time, two females and one male, rather than one female and two males. I'm worried that she will be even more singled out after I remove the troublemaker. Is that a reasonable worry, or do you think it would be fine?

Because she's been in there for about three weeks, and while they've gotten better, the Pieds have been singling her out and bullying her every now and then. If I were to remove the troublemaker - and take it back down to only three zebras - would you think their hostility towards her could get worse? Or do you think it would simmer down? And following on that, if it ever does get worse, do you think it would be wise to try to put her in the other cage with the troublemaker? Prior to getting her, I could have just put the troublemaker in the cage and called it at that, but now I need to make sure the new girl doesn't get hurt in the aviary after doing so.

I really do appreciate all of your advice, here, you've been a great help with getting this issue under control. I'm still super new to bird-keeping, so the advice you've given me on this has helped me tremendously.
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finchbreeder
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Hard questions. Can't really say. Birds like people have differing personalities. Observe, hopefully the pair will settle down and leave her be once the main trouble maker is at "arms length"
How many nests do you have in the cage? You now have 4 hen birds so you need 5 nests. Every lady must have a choice - so 4 + 1
Hope things settle down soon.
LML
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Charles_Mu
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finchbreeder wrote: 21 Mar 2021, 20:23 Hard questions. Can't really say. Birds like people have differing personalities. Observe, hopefully the pair will settle down and leave her be once the main trouble maker is at "arms length"
How many nests do you have in the cage? You now have 4 hen birds so you need 5 nests. Every lady must have a choice - so 4 + 1
Hope things settle down soon.
Yeah, upon posting that, I realized those questions were a bit on the broader side. That's the type of thing I'd have to just watch, then. So, I'll monitor them and go from there. As far as nests go, though, they have seven; three canary nests and four nesting boxes, so they all have a wide range of nests available - that should hopefully help.

Thanks for all the assistance, I appreciate it.
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finchbreeder
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Canary nests are not much use for finches accept to provide a site they can reject. So you will be fine with what you have as they can each choose a box. :thumbup: Hope things setttle down.
LML
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