All-male Zebra aviary - anyone done it? Thoughts?

[Finchy]

Hi

Because I love my Zebbies but they breed like mice and take over from the other species, I am considering keeping male Zebras only as a display of my favourites - Normals, Marked White, Black Cheek and Silver. Or would this be cruel? Might it actually be more relaxing for them to not have the females around and be breeding all the time, or would they get depressed?!

Has anyone tried this? How did it go?

Thanks

[natamambo]

Finchy, that's a brave question here - some people can be very touchy about what they consider should be "done" and are quick to suggest that those who disagree are somehow being cruel - I hope you have a thick hide . Yet somehow separating the genders of Gouldians is considered "good" coz it gets the males raring to go (even though there is no evidence of cloistering in the wild).

Zebs are colony birds quite apart from being prolific breeders. A few males together sans females gives them some one to play with even if not someone to "play" with . I knew a guy once (lost touch with him over the years) who kept his pets and his breeding stock quite happily apart with never an ill effect on the birds. He had dozens of "misfits" in relation to show standard he would never intend to breed from but whose appearance caught his fancy. These were kept in separate male and female flights and all lived out their days without suffering any depression that I saw.

[jusdeb]

Rather see an all male aviary than a single bird in a cage .

I have a spinster aviary of which the inhabitants appear to be healthy and happy , they have lots of branches etc to keep them busy . They are active and vocal and interact with each other .

I move things around in the aviary to keep them from getting bored .

Anyhoo your birds and your hobby , Im sure you will pick up on any signs of distress if the boys dont like the situation so "why not " ?

Would be interested to know how you go with it please .

* Sigh * now waits for the backlash

[AMCA26]

You can still have an aviary of hens and cocks, just make sure and green seed stems etc are picked up before they get to use it. Depends on the setup as well. I use boxes and that is what they use. I have no brush in just branches and if they decide to go into the seed tray it gets pulled out and they soon learn.
And then i have 2 holding aviaries for hens and cocks ( breeding birds ) .
Males will still have a go at each other.

[Finchy]

Mmm...thanks for that suggestion, though it sounds like an even more frustrating situation for them - girls, girls everywhere but not a scrap of nesting material!

Also the main reason for considering it is that I want my other species to nest. It's a mixed population. Plus the aviary is a natural setup with nesting material galore (see here http://finchstuff.com/aviaries.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) so I don't really have that flexibility.

I am warming to the idea of males Zebs only. I've been 7 years in the hobby and it's only just occured to me as an option...

[jusdeb]

I only have 3 pairs of Zebs together and couldn't work out why they were beating each other up ( males ) ...it was over not enough nesting material .

So your statement "Mmm...thanks for that suggestion, though it sounds like an even more frustrating situation for them - girls, girls everywhere but not a scrap of nesting material!" is very valid.

[Weaver]

Zebras arn't a fabulous bird for a mixed collection at the best of times.
They are just too inquisitive; they will be sticking their beaks into everyone elses nest.
Single cock birds of any species but even more so Zebras will try and mate with any hens no matter the species.
The commonest hybrids generally have one parent a Zebra finch.
The idea of a non breeding flock of males is a good one, but I wouldn't recommend putting them in a breeding aviary.