A relative brought home a pair of lovebirds for us yesterday, (peachfaced I think). The original owner didn’t want them anymore.
We’re not new to birds, just lovebirds. We’ve had cockatiels for years. Eldest boy (12) is especially good at getting them socialized – even older and not-so-nice birds turn out well. One identifies with him as a bird, and asks to be preened, has different whistle greetings for different family members…
I told the kids to leave the lovebirds alone for the next few days until we know what they’re like, but they are in a community area.
A couple of questions:
Our cockatiel walked over to their cage to investigate, and the female came out and bit his toe through the bars. I’m hoping that was just territorial aggression, because most articles I’ve read this morning say they are sweet birds, although less so when in pairs. Can we put them (all three birds) in a very large cage we have all together? or will they bully the cockatiel?
The cockatiel only uses his beak in a light pinch as a warning, but that was not always the case, the worst we’ve gotten from him was a sharp pinch. Are these birds’ beak strength comparable? i.e. are they going to draw blood if they want to? Their wings are not clipped. It does not worry me to clip the cockatiel because, I dunno, I’ve it done a whole bunch. I guess I worry about them drawing blood and/or me hurting them. (Or them biting my son very hard)
The cockatiel mimics in whistles, since lovebirds are part of the parrot family, I assume they mimic too, but they seem to have more of a squawk going on, instead of whistles. Will they mimic in sounds similar to parrots?
There is a box on the side of the cage. As we are not hoping to breed, should I take it away from them, or do they need a dark space/privacy?
They seem to take relatively the same diet as the cockatiel, seeds some veggies some fruit. ok?Suggestions?
A lot of your experience from keeping cockatiels is going to be transferrable - lovebirds are parrots, after all, so behaviour, attitude, body language etc is going to be at least a little bit similar.
Whether or not they will eventually all be friends is very much their collective decision - they might just not take a liking to each other, or they might. Keeping them in separate cages in the same room and moving them closer together gradually/periodically might help.
Every bird info source I’ve seen stresses the need to quarantine new birds away from your current birds for 30 days…some say 45, some 60, but I think that’s inflation by overly cautious bird lovers. I believe in quarantine, though; birds hide illness well, and danger aside, vet bills pile up when you have to treat a whole flock.
IMHO (not having lived with lovebirds, but having met them) they are capable of a somewhat harder bite than cockatiels, and much more inclined to do so – tiels are (IMHO) the gentlest and least aggressive of parrots.
Because of their gentleness, tiels are prone to being bullied, even by much smaller birds. I would keep them separated unless I was actively supervising, even after a quarantine period.
Our cockatiels have drawn blood – although only when they are in pon farr.
I have had three lovebirds. Actually, at one point we had six because the original two reproduced but we found homes for most of the offspring.
Female lovebirds can be extremely aggressive. I would strongly suggest that you not allow the two types of birds to interact without human supervision for quite some time.
When breeding, a female lovebird’s bite is not about declaring territory or asserting dominance, it’s about removing a perceived threat. She can cause severe and permanent damage to other birds. Until you really get to know your lovebirds please make sure sure isn’t allowed to run free or threaten other birds. That’s not to say she will - some of them can be very sweet - but the potential is there. Until you know what you have use some caution.
By the way - Peach faced lovebirds are probably the least aggressive variety. I had black-masked lovebirds, which are significantly more belligerent.
Do not house a lovebird pair in the same cage as other birds - this is risky even with other members of their species, much more so with other types of birds. The lovebirds need their own home, and they will become possessive of it. Outside of their cage they will be less territorial.
Oh, yes - lovebirds have a MUCH stronger bite than a cockatiel. Which is not to say they’re going to bite hard - a well socialized lovebird can have a very delicate touch, they are truly very affectionate animals - but if threatened or in pain they can and will draw blood. (We had our girl break a leg - she really tore up the thumb of the guy who was holding her down when they splinted her leg) A pair of gardening or heavy leather gloves are good to have in the event you need to restrain a hysterial lovebird. Otherwise, have a towel handy. If you have gloves, try to accustom the birds to their appearance/use in non-threatening circumstances, otherwise it will just add more stress to bad situations.
This is one reason lovebirds are capable of causing great physical damage to another bird. Most don’t, but the potential is there.
Clip their wings. Procedure is essentially the same, your cockatiel experience will be sufficient. Some birds react calmly (well, they don’t like it, but they tolerate it) and others will view it as a threat/attack. We used to use a towel to hold them, to mitigate beak action.
Yep.
Ours never learned words (some do), but they sure as heck learned to imitate the phone, the doorbell, and similar sounds.
Well… if they want to breed and you take the box away the female will attempt to locate some other dark, suitable space. Consider that a female lovebird is quite capable of chewing through particle board, plywood, and the like and you could find a dresser drawer converted into a nestbox, or a footlocker, or … well, they’re quite capable of being sneaky. If you leave the box on the side of the cage at least you’ll know where she’s building a nest and laying her eggs. Take the eggs away (try not to let her catch you at this - they do have memories and she will not forgive you) and they won’t reproduce.
Females also shred things for nesting material. Keep books, magazines, etc. out of her access. Ours used to reduce a Chicago white pages phone book to strips exactly 1/4 inch wide in less than 2 days.
By the way - ours used to really enjoy shredding those annoying subscription cards from magazines. Just a cheap toy suggestion. I mean, for good behavior and tricks we used the cards for a reward for the girl bird instead of food, she liked them that much. The females especially will chew things up, it’s instinctive and you will never change that, so make sure she has plenty of things it is OK for her to render into confetti.
A balanced diet for cockatiels is pretty much adequate for lovebirds. They do seem to want more protein-heavy foods than the 'tiels. Aside from removing the cold cut slices from sandwiches, our male used to hunt, catch, and eat mice. And a black-mask is actually slightly smaller than a peach-face lovebird. Whereas 'tiels are more scavengers/fruit/seed eaters with the occasional live snack, the lovebirds are actually somewhat predatory. Ours regularly cleaned out not only mice but spiders, centipedes, and probably a multitude of other crawly things from our living quarters. They hunted - they crept, stalked, dove from above upon their prey. They would not, however, eat cockroaches. The female would head-bang them into mush, but refused to taste them or even bite them. Given the amount of poison the average urban cockroach eats on a regular basis it was probably just as well.
Remember that lovebirds form very strong attachments. To each other, of course, but they can also become extremely attached to their human families, or even to other birds not of their species (I realize that contradicts some of the above, but since birds are individuals there are a number of ways things can play out)
Ours also liked to sleep under things - rags, shirts, blankets. In fact, that’s how the girl broke her leg - she had crawled under a shirt lying on the couch and was not visible to the person sitting down. Keep this in mind. We used to throw a rag in their cage for them to crawl under to sleep, although if they have a nestbox this may not be necessary. They aren’t particularly delicate at room temperature while awake, but they most certainly do worry about keeping warm when sleeping.
Of our three birds, two lived to a ripe old age, one was killed by another lovebird. Our lovebirds lived with cockatiels and a conure (which was completely dominated by the lovebird despite being three times its size) quite peacefully for years - except when the other birds attempted to enter their cages. Which is why, again, I emphasize separate cages for lovebirds and cockatiels.
Not lovebird specific, but this applies to your cockatiel as well. Veggies - great. Some fruit - great. But seeds are essentially “candy” (complete with the same nutritional value as human candy) to parrots. This explains why it is such a favorite to them.
It may not be easy, but you want to get your birds off of seeds (only for treats) and onto a pellet diet. The biggest gains in pet parrot longevity in recent years has been improving their diets. And pellets is the biggest part of that.
As I said, taking “candy” away and getting them to eat something not as appealing will not be easy. It took me a number of months to convert my conure over. I tried a number of the recommended tricks (easing pellets in with the seed, adding fruit juice to the pellets, etc.). But what I finally found to be most effective was what I refer to as the “warm turkey” method. Not quite “cold turkey”, but close. I would only have pellets in the cage for most of the day. And then add the seeds back late in the evening. My conure would try to hold out for the seeds, but eventually the hunger took over, and he broke down and ate the pellets. I gradually started decreasing the amount of seeds that he would get until he was no longer relying on them for sustinance.
The only other suggestion is to cover the cage at night (including your cockatiel). Parrots need 10 hours of sound, uninterrupted sleep. Not getting enough sleep can lead to behavior problems.
And I’m sure you know about teflon and non-stick surface cookware.
Eldest boy was trying to get them to eat some dried currants out of his hand yesterday (while hand was in cage) and they didn’t try to bite him. The male almost ate from him. So, hoping not as aggressive as I initially feared, but still will take it slow, and keep the cages separate.
I won’t clip their wings until he has them more used to being handled. They look incredibly FAST, and can hover in their cage, so I will clip them but not right now.
I have noticed them competing with the TV or one of the kids if they are whining, so maybe this is a little incentive to get the house quieter altogether. (well, except in the early morning)
I read the kids this thread, and they were especially amazed by broomstick’s mouser. I probably won’t let them eat anything that’s living in the house which isn’t a pet, since we spray for roaches in the kitchen, and outside in the spring and summer for termites.
Teflon won’t be an issue since I hate that kind of cookware.
re: pellets, I’ll try that out. I read somewhere else to try to sprout the seeds to encourage them to eat greens. Anyone have luck with that?
One book I read said that a very common lovebird accident is going home in the coatsleeves of guests after a party where coats had been stored tossed on a bed.
Oh…and this is the most general sort of advice, but I feel compelled to add it: over the years, I’ve learned that the more effort. learning, and attention I put into interacting with an animal, the more reward I get back. That’s probably true of everything, but it’s acutely noticeable with animals. There’s a lot to learn about caring for any given species, but there’s also a lot to learn about each individual – and birds are very distinct individuals. Give them more time and attention, and spend some effort reading up, and you’ll find a lot more reward in the process. And of course the attention and interaction you give any animal will be by far the most important experience of his or her whole life.
Every new-to-me species, and every individual animal for whom I’ve been responsible, has taught me more than I expected, and been more complex and interesting than I’d assumed would be the case.
I once had a single peach face love bird and a cockatiel; when I let them fly in the house, the love bird would not allow the cockatiel to perch on the same object as he. It didn’t matter what that object was–chair back, curtain rod, table, back of the sofa, etc.) If the cockatiel tried it, he got bitten. Other than the perching thing, there was never any overt aggression, but they never became buddies, either.
I can’t address the cockatiel issues as I’ve never dealt with those. OTOH, we had a very large aviary in our front yard (2 meters X 2 Meters X 2 meters) with a dozen lovebirds. We had them for 7 or 8 years and always enjoyed them. I have to second a lot of what Broomstick said, especially about the protein-heavy diet. We regularly fed ours boiled egg, they seem to like the egg-white the best. Aside from that we fed them seed-mixes, corn-on-the-cob (they loved that) and other vegetables and fruits. Fresh yogurt is something else they liked although it was a pain as it would spoil quickly.
As far as the talking goes, I’ve always heard they can learn but I’ve never had one or heard one actually do it.
I’ve seen them be very aggressive. Our flock spent an entire morning dive-bombing a big hedgehog that was in the cage. I’ve also seen them be very affectionate. Many of them liked to climb on the large (80 pound) dog we had.
As far as laying goes, they will always be trying. In our experience, the eggs rarely hatch so it shouldn’t be a problem. If the cage is large enough, it is always nice to change their environment. They are intensely curious and will play with anything they can get their beaks around. In addition to the usual sticks and branches, we used to give them bamboo cuttings. They will cut these up and drag them into a nest box and then bite them into sawdust for their nest.
When they are in a large group they will fight and squabble, kick each other off the perching areas, and generally be aggressive with each other but not to the point of real damage.
They are curious and fearless little birds and always very enjoyable to watch if you give them something to fiddle with.