I'm not quite sure if they are from the same parents or not. I had a hankering to dip into the zebra pool though since I only had societies, and so I searched craigslist for any finches. What can I say? I love these little guys and I'll adopt an animal off of craigslist LONG before I'll adopt from a shelter. One too many animals that I've adopted from shelters have been sick, and some that I've adopted I've actually had to put down not more than a month later due to a disease they picked up while on the street.
I know people will tell me that adopting a shelter animal saves a life, but honest to god...they're just too damn expensive with how sick they end up being. Sorry. I'm not going to pay a $150 shelter fee and go through that annoying adoption application for an ill animal.
So I was on craigslist and I found a post advertising societies and zebra finches, ready to go. I hopped on it and before long I was on my way over to go adopt one zebra and one society. I walked into a decently sized house in a housing plan full of large homes. The house had sort of an "empty" feel to it, so I assumed they had just moved in. I turned the corner and saw a gigantic flight cage with what looked like 40 birds inside, and next to the window was a small, but nicely sized aviary holding many different kinds of finches. The man told me to pick out any bird from the flight cage, and he'd catch it.
I was kind of skeptical. Not that I didn't think the birds weren't healthy. They were definitely thriving. But how can I pick out one single bird out of that huge cage and have him keep his eye on it long enough to catch it through the mess of panicking, scrambling feathers?
I told him that I'd take any zebra he could catch, but I'd really like one with a pied marking. He opened the cage and all hell broke loose. Zebras and societies darted from side to side, panic meeps and chirps filled the air, and he was trying to catch only one using a net. I think I could have had a better chance if I used my hands, to be honest.
Anyways, one few out of the cage and took off through the house. He spent maybe 5 minutes trying to catch him before resorting back to the flight cage. He finally caught a zebra, and then managed to catch a society. On a spur of the moment decision, I told him that I would take the loose zebra if he could catch it.
hahahaha!
Anyways, he chased that poor bird around for a good 10 minutes with the net before he finally caught him. We stuffed him in the box with the rest and taped that puppy shut. I offered to pay him for all 3 birds (naturally) but he told me he'd let me take one for free. Can't argue with that!
So home I went with Cinnamon the society, and Decoy and Bullseye, my male zebras. My husband acted surprised that I had 3 more finches...I mean...I did tell a little white lie about how I was only picking up ONE...but he should know better by now!
Cinnamon was sadly lost in the Christmas massacre. She was actually found torn apart. My husband saw her and grabbed her before I could even look, so I have no idea how bad it actually was. He kind of wanted to shield me from it, I guess. Bullseye and Decoy were wild and fast enough to survive the onslaught. I later learned that they were extremely feisty, too.
I switched over to a large, more secure cage after the massacre. That was terrible.
When I got JD Barbados, I tossed him in with Bullseye and Decoy because their cage was a lot larger than the one I previously had. I expected a little hostility from JD since I heard his species was aggressive, but I discovered that the two zebra boys were picking on my cutthroat, and so I separated him.
So now they're in a cage all by themselves. I may put Mihah in with them when I get my cutthroat female and see how the boys will get along with her. As far as I know, all of them are way too young to breed anyways so its just a matter of the pecking order and if they'll accept her.
They are a tad hard to tell apart when you just graze the surface, but they have their different markings. They sometimes confuse me when I just glance in, but their specific pattern varies slightly from the other. Once I manage to get split leg bands I'll be able to identify them a bit more quickly than normal. I may think about rehoming one of them since I'll only need one for breeding, but thats a long ways off yet.
Anyways, this is Decoy's wing markings. You can see the bit of pied thats coming out on him. I hope to get a few of those from his offspring one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment