Crazy Nesting Material?

02 Oct 2011, 01:46

When I used to keep a couple of pairs of zebras in the large cage in the house, some of them used very strange nesting material :S

When I moved them into the aviary, I had a poke around in the nest, this finch's nest had apple, grass, greens, and dead meal worms all poking out of the feathers and other materials! Thankfully she never got sick, I was a bit afraid because the apple pieces were looking very 'fluffy'.

Has this happened to anyone else's finches?

02 Oct 2011, 07:03

Did they have access to plenty of "real" nesting material? .....They will try n use anything else if other stuff isn't available...

02 Oct 2011, 07:13

vettepilot_6 wrote:Did they have access to plenty of "real" nesting material? .....They will try n use anything else if other stuff isn't available...

Oh they definitely did, cotton balls, dried grasses, other things we had bought from pet stores ect.

02 Oct 2011, 07:15

sounds very odd....only time I had strange stuff was when it was stuck to white feathers as they carried it up to their box....

04 Oct 2011, 16:22

Zebras especially seem fond of interior decorating. I had one pair that insisted on using rock and cement pieces that they found who knows where... hard bed to grow up on! They used sponge when my dogs bed got torn up too. Little opportunists.

04 Oct 2011, 16:39

Well, not odd nesting material, but odd location. My Orange-breasted Waxbills have pulled some Brush Fencing away from the concrete wall,and have built a nest in there.

05 Oct 2011, 18:22

monotwine wrote:Zebras especially seem fond of interior decorating. I had one pair that insisted on using rock and cement pieces that they found who knows where... hard bed to grow up on! They used sponge when my dogs bed got torn up too. Little opportunists.

Well, long time ago, I accidentally left this massive card board sheet in my aviary, against the wall, and they stripped it bare, so it was just this flimsy piece of paper!

05 Oct 2011, 18:30

It's funny watching them trying to get pieces of nesting material like small branches into the nest when it doesn't fit, they normally try to force it in from the outside while the one on the inside is trying to pull it in. I mean they have all this other nesting material but have to use the biggest stuff.

05 Oct 2011, 23:18

Yes finchman I have watched this forcing thing with my zeb's it had me in stiches! Fluffnut (male zeb)he had a twig and was planning to build along the half way wall joice and he tried this way and that wouldn't fitso he walked along the wood opposite way of the nest turned and with all his boounding might he headed toward the nest full speed.this did not work he flipped the twwig around in his beak and took the run up AGAIN! barely being able to see through my tears of laughter you could see the dissapointment in in little face as the last attempt failed too.Fluffnut spat the twig!!!

05 Oct 2011, 23:37

My Zebs put any sticks or stalks of milk thistles, etc in their water dish. I imagine this is to soften it.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I was using pieces of thin wire about 20cm (8 inches) long to fix perches in my breeding cabinet which is on the back inside wall of my aviary. I went for lunch and when I returned the two remaining pieces of wire had disappeared. I had to go and get more. Later that afternoon when replacing their water,there they were in the water dish.

MadOzzie