boubez@caip.rutgers.edu (Toufic Boubez) (08/08/90)
Hi there. On the advice of some of you, we finally got a pair of Zebra finches about 2 months ago. They are easy to take care of, and they're very vocal, esp. in the morning, when they hear other birds outside, and when I turn the TV on :-). So far we haven't had any problems, and we've enjoyed having them. There are a couple of questions that I'd like to ask, however. First, they are still very jittery (esp. the female) whenever anybody comes close to the cage, even to change the water, clean the cage, etc. I thought they should've been used to people by now. Any advice? Next, we noticed that the female was developing a bald spot on the back of the head. After some observation, we realised that the male was always pecking her there. This behaviour has recently stopped, and she's regaining the feathers on that spot. Is anybody familiar with this behaviour? We thought they were courting :-) since we noticed the male trying to mount a couple of times. Could that be it? Which brings us to the next question: If they ever, er, well, you know, wink wink nudge nudge, do it, ... what should WE do? Thanks a lot in advance. toufic -- Toufic Boubez boubez@caip.rutgers.edu