Best way to tame 2 lovebirds

[susanna_a]

Hello!

I'm getting two lovebird babies next week. They are siblings and are about two and a half months old. They are not hand raised but got handled by the breeder. She doesn't have heaps of birds so they are kind of used to humans.

I am just wondering if it's possible to get them tame evetually or if it's impossible to get 2 lovebirds tame at once? I don't really care how long it takes and I'm ready to put a lot of time and patience into it. Just wanted some feedback Can you target train two birds at once? Or do I need to separate them and train? I think that would prob cause stress for the birds. And from not being tame at all that might be a to big step. Anyone with experience? Also Michael, can I use a clicker later on to train them?

Thank you!

[pennyandrocky]

the problem with getting 2 at once is they have eachother to bond with so they don't have much use for you. it's not impossible just harder. you'll need them in seperate cages and one on one bonding then training.

[marie83]

I've never tamed two birds at once but I am confident enough to say you will have a much much easier time of it to train the seperately. Like pennyandrocky says its unlikely be impossible but definitely much much harder.

I would also be concerned (but less confident to say) about inadvertantly teaching them to ignore commands because your working with one bird in front of the other. My logic here comes from working with dogs, not parrots so feel free to completely disregard or correct me on this concern. It works well for Michael and other people because their birds have been worked with to the extent where they know the command is directed at them because they recognise their names and the birds are already familiar with the commands. That said a parrot will always choose if it wants to do something or not but I just feel that at this stage in training that it is too early to complicate things by training them together as they have not yet learned the benefits (rewards) of the behaviours.

[susanna_a]

Thanks for your replies! I ended up with two baby lovebirds who are siblings instead. Don't know if it's males of females or so on. They are around 13 weeks old. I've had them for two days only but have already gotten them to eat millet from my hand in the cage 3 times. So I think it will go well. Everytime has gone faster for them to accept it too so we are making progress fast.
Now there another probmlem though. I think.
These two siblings where the ones getting along best, and where always sitting next to eachother and so on. But yesterday the yellow one (older sibling) started chasing the green one (younger sibling) around in the cage and biting it's feet and neck, not letting it eat or anything. Then after an hour of that they were sitting together on the sleeping perch again kissing and preening. Then it was fine. Today it happened again but for around three very long hours, and then they ended up eating from the same bowl together and now they're napping together. I'm really confused. Should I be worried or is it just to eastablish who's the boss now when it's just the two of them and in a new home and all?
Because I know siblings can end up hating each other when they hit puberty if they are females or female/male. But they are still so young and have been best friends all the time. What do you think?
It breaks my heart when it happens and I don't know what to do.

[pennyandrocky]

did you get 2 seperate cages? they really need their own space. feed them in their seperate cages before you let them out.

[susanna_a]

Why would lovebirds need separate cages? People have that just to be able to tame them better. It's not a rule that you need to follow. They usually live together in pairs of bigger groups.

[marie83]

You are right, they dont "need" seperate cages but for several reasons I think it is better. You already mentioned the taming but seperate cages allows for better monitoring of health (feed and poop monitoring primarily) and tbh if this fighting behaviour continues you might be better off seperating them, I've heard of birds killing their cage mates..... That said they may not be fighting, it may just be bullying behaviour, it might be some form of play or a temporary reaction to the stress of being in a new environment but keep a close eye on the situation.