Aussie Finch Forum

Hello there, I recently purchased a couple of zebra finches, one male and one female.
It was all nice, they seem to be very healthy, nice feathers and they are singing and calling each other.

I'm a new ZF keeper, so forgive me if it sounds super silly, but my female ZF has a very big crop when she eats.
She's not always like that, so sometimes she seems to be all round and nice, but when she feeds, her crop becomes ridiculously large, so she looks like she ate a small ball.

Also, she seem hungry for grit (I use the one with oyster shell and charcoal), but i guess that she consumes grit to grind the seeds in the crop.

Can someone tell me what's going on with the crop? Is this normal for an adult bird to have this kind of thing?

Thank you so much!

She looks like she has a hernia. Do you have access to a bird vet?
On another note - finches should have natural wood perches - not artificial plastic perches. They are just an excuse for retailers to sell you something.
If you have access to fruit trees, I would prune some nice perches the right size for the cage and replace those plastic ones.
The grit is good - hens will sometimes consume more as they need the calcium to produce eggs.

Yes i'm aware of the wood perches. They are quarantining right now, they will be placed in a bigger and nicer cage when the 30 days are over. For now i just have plastic perches to keep them clean and prevent them from spreading potential diseases. The other cages have the wood perches the shops give you with the little screws attached in the wood.

Regarding the ZF, do hernias disappear?
She looks normal in the mornings...
This picture was the same bird, the same day, at 11 am, while the other pictures with the swollen crop where taken at 6 pm.

Is it still possible for it to be a hernia?

I believe so.