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| Zebra Finch |
| Zebra finches are extremely social birds; however they are only social with other birds. Typically, zebra finches are shy around people and do not like to be petted or held. Some owners of hand-fed zebra finches attest to birds that are more comfortable with human touch. My finches do not like to be held but will hop onto my arm at feeding time. Zebra's are very vocal and if you do not like the background noise you hear on this page, then you may not want to own zebra's!! Zebra finches are extremely social in nature and should be kept in pairs to insure their happiness. A pair of zebra finches will often stay in close physical contact at rest or while grooming or preening one another. Zebras tend to nest in wicker type nest or breeder boxes, but I have known them to nest in empty butter bowls. They will use just about anything for nesting material. I find they like strings from burlap sacks,cotton balls pulled apart,dryer lint (long hairs removed), and nest material from the local pet stores. You can line the nest for them if you like, but they do a good job on their own. Zebras are also very protective of their nests. They will attack any bird that comes too close, even to the point of pulling out feathers on the intruding bird. The breeding process is actually very simple. The mate's sit on a perch next to each other and 'talk' togeather. The male will then hop on the females back and flutter his wings to keep balance. The whole process takes about a minute. They will copy this process a number of times. They will then lay eggs one a day. Normally they lay 3-8 eggs and are good parents. Although sometimes you do come across young or inexperianced zebras that fail to incubate the eggs or feed the young. In this case, use society finches to foster the young or the eggs. They do not even have to be male/female mated societies. I currentlly have three pairs that I breed. I do sell the baby zebras priced by coloration. My pairs are as follow: 1. penguin male with fawn female 2. grey pied male with grey female 3. grey male with white female |
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| Left: Penguin Male Right: White Female |