My peach-faced lovebirds are tiny bundles of joy. They have all the personality of a parrot and are easy to house due to their size. My birds are little clowns, playing for hours at a time. They love to hang onto toys, spin around and dance on your shoulder. I had to take care of my buttons! They love to take them off my clothes! What cuddly little birds – they love to snuggle and preen.
Many people believe that lovebirds should be kept in pairs. This is simply not true. A single lovebird makes a better pet because it jumps at you instead of another lovebird. While it’s easy to keep a pair of lovebirds tame, if you plan on spending a lot of time with your bird, you can keep it alone. However, if you work long hours and don’t think you’ll have much time for your lovebird, I recommend getting him a partner. This will keep your lovebirds happy and prevent boredom. It is important to realize that while lovebirds are a small parrot, they have the intelligence and abilities of some of the larger parrots.
They never cease to amaze me with their ability to escape from their own cages. I have to put copper wire on the cage doors to keep them in and sometimes they figure out how to untwist the wire and open the door!
Lovebirds will sometimes try to become the little bosses of the house. I recommend using the same type of soft dominance training that is used for larger parrots.
Are you looking for a bird that you can teach to talk? Lovebirds can learn to imitate sounds and speech from time to time. However, I do not recommend that you purchase any species of bird solely on the expectation that it will talk; even the famous African grays sometimes don’t learn to speak. So if that’s your only reason for buying a bird, I strongly advise you to reconsider, as the bird could end up abandoned due to your own disappointment.
In my opinion, love birds and parrots make great pets, even if they never say a word. We have both in our house. Lovebirds chatter all day long, never making a sound that anyone can understand, except that it’s just “loud chattering.” However, our Double Yellow Head Parrot makes up for it; his vocabulary is very long, extensive and he is constantly talking.
If you decide to breed lovebirds, remember that they are prolific breeders. You may soon, like we did, find our house infested with lovebirds! And, as a warning, “don’t” put bark chips in the nest of the little birds. Although the scent is pleasant to humans and good for older birds, it is too strong for baby lovebirds. I must admit I learned the hard way and had casualties on my hands! Paper is best to put in the nest along with some alfalfa. Don’t buy powdered alfalfa, buy dried alfalfa leaves. If you decide to use paper, cut it (newspaper is best) into long strips and place next to the nest. Mom will take him to the nest. And she remembers that if mom yells at you, she’s just protecting her nest!
My favorite lovebird is Lucky, so called because she was our first clutch and was the only one of six that survived when I put the bark chips in the nest.
We do not have a bird breeder, rather our lovebirds are paired in separate cages. The best way to break in babies quickly is to take the babies out of the next one when they are about two weeks old and hand feed them. In this way, the birds get the best of both worlds: the immunity conferred by their parents and the meekness that comes from being manipulated by humans.
Our lovebirds are abundantly weaned to be happy, well-adjusted birds. We feed them pellets, a good mix of seeds, alfalfa, wheatgrass, quinoa, sprouted beans, and other vegetables and fruits. And oh yes! Lovebirds love not only to eat grapes, but also to throw them. In shorts, lovebirds love to play. They keep us entertained for hours. If you decide on a lovebird as a pet, you will have made an excellent choice! ~Mrs. CiCi~