Welcome Jim.

 

That is not a behavior. That little guy is sick. Zebras are so active and flighty that if one ever sits with his eyes closed except at night or naptime, he's really not well.

He needs to be seen by an avian vet today. Or by a vet who is used to treating bird in a regular practice.

Please get help for him or you could lose him.

Annie

Annie's right.  Healthy Zebra finches don't sit around with eyes shut, and they don't use their nests other than for sleeping at night, or they have eggs/babies.  Even when they are inside the nest raising babies, they will appear very alert. 

 

This little guy is not feeling well. 

Thank you guys. 

I have four zebras in one large cage with two nesting boxes.  They've just started to build a nest in one box.  We'll see what a vet says about the little guy.  The sick guy is a male.  I bought two males at a pet store, they are nice size and looked quite healthy.  I bought two females at a swap meet.  One is a zebra and the other is white, almost all over.  They are both somewhat smallet than the males. 

 

One book we have said to feed them sunflower seeds, and I have put some in a feeder, but they seem real large, should I chop them up? 

 

I just love the sound the finches make, its not to loud, and when they start talking to each other, they get going!

 

Thanks again.

 

 

Jim

I raised Lady Gouldian finches for a while. I fed them a good quality seed mix plus boiled egg (small amounts mushed up good) plus thawed frozen mixed veggies. Then I hung a leaf of spinach, collards or romaine thru the cage bars. I also gave them baked crushed chicken eggshells for the calcium.

They thrived on this diet and gave me 10 babies per pair per season.

 

I don't think  sunflower is a good diet, especially if that's all you are feeding. They need a mix of canary seed, millet, niger and a couple more. Check the expiration dates on packaging to be sure it's fresh and then freeze it for 24 hours when you get home to kill the bugs and bug eggs that could be in it.  Then transfer some in small batches to a tight canister for feeding at room temp.

 

Hope the little guy is ok.

Annie

Thank you again.  The idea of the spinach is one I will definately try, along with some egg shell and boiled egg.  We are currently feeding them a store mix for finches, I have added a little sunflower seed and (Iam not sure what its called) a brown seed on a stem, that they really love.  We have a cuttle bone, which they love, and a honey/seed bar (which they hardly touch).

 

We put some shredded newspaper strips in the cage hopeing they would use it for nesting.  They put six peices of paper in the nexting box, but what I thought was funny was they threw every other peice of paper out of the cage.  We put some grass trimings in the cage yesterday and they started making a nest with that. 

 

Thanks again for the advice.

 

 

Jim

Be careful with the grass trimmings that they havent been sprayed with any type o f pesticides.