budgie or lovebird ?

[coolhady13]

when should i start target training?

[Sarah&Rico]

Keep in mind Lovebirds tend to make a very loud shrill noise, budgies aren't as loud, but they do chatter on almost constantly...at least that's been my experience.

[kaylayuh]

yes i can tell there sex, one of them have a blue cere and the other have a pink cere . So the blue is the male and the other is the female , i have a nest box also

I would take the nest box out until you've trained the birds. You don't want to encourage mating behavior so early unless you want a strictly breeding pair. Also, breeding can be a bit dangerous for hens. Some birds are prone to egg binding, where they can't expel the egg, and can die as a result of it. It's best to not encourage this behavior until you're experienced with them and know what their normal behavior is.

You can start target training any time. I personally didn't target train my budgies, but they were store bought and terrified of being worked with. If the birds seem a bit nervous or scared of you, sit by their cage and talk in a low voice to them. Reassure them that you won't hurt them.

When you put your hands in the cage to do things like clean or change food and water, let your hand in the cage for a minute or two. If they run away, that's okay, just don't go chasing after them. Budgies are very curious and will eventually come to investigate your hand.

Once you've been target training for a while and can get them to follow the target, you should also be able to target them up onto your hand. If they jump off right away, that's fine. Just keep working at it. Again, Michael has some excellent posts about it in Training/Taming section.

Good luck with them.

[coolhady13]

i see training then mating . Well what if the female layed eggs without the nest box?, also i didnt find any toy at the store .so i just got them with the cage and a perch and a plastic swing like.any way the store told me that they will take a month to start mating, but if i removed the nest what will they do? They are now setting in there cage doing nothing not even a voice :-S . I feel that the cage is small for them

[coolhady13]

and what treats should i give them? I didnt find millet spray at the store , would nuts, sun flower seeds work? And what else would they like as treat?

[kaylayuh]

I order most of my bird toys online. Ebay has a lot of really good toys, and they really should have some. My budgies have six toys in their cage now, along with two swings, five perches, a ladder, four food/water dishes, a mirror, and a cuttlebone and millet spray holder. They use each of these toys daily, and also have both a table top play stand and cagetop play perches that they are free to use daily.

You can make your own out of bird safe rope, wooden blocks, beads, and lead free bells. My budgies absolutely LOVE bells. But toys really are a necessity for birds. It's usually less expensive to make your own toys and the birds get a better variety. My birds really like to play with the cardboard from toilet paper rolls, and that's fine as long as there is no glue.

How big is the cage that you have them in? For one budgie, the cage size recommendation is 18" x 18" x 18". I find that to be a bit small for two. Right now, my budgies are in a cage that is 17.5" x 25.5" x 35" and they love it. Make sure the bar spacing is between 3/8" and 1/2". You should always get the largest bird cage you can afford, and the general rule of thumb is that each bird should be able to spread their wings comfortably without hitting anything else.

As for treats, my budgies love spray millet. I'm not sure what's available in Egypt, but you can order it online fairly cheaply. Birds should have fresh foods available daily, so you can use their absolutely favorite as a treat, too. They make seed sticks that are readily available in the US, but I'm not so sure about Egypt. You could also make your own by sticking a seed mix to a cardboard form using honey.

NEVER give a bird avocado, alcohol, chocolate or caffeine. This could kill your bird. For a more complete list of what not to feed, you can just do a quick google search.

If your birds are just sitting on the perch and not chirping, I wouldn't be too worried. They're getting used to their new home and aren't quite sure of their surroundings yet. It took my budgies a week or two to really get used to being here, and now they run around their cage/the floor/their playstands and chirp all day.

And finally, a female can lay eggs without the nest box, but they usually won't. Conditions have to be just right for them to want to mate. Females can lay eggs without them being fertilized, though, and chronic egg laying is dangerous for her. Any time a female bird lays eggs, there's a chance of egg binding. I don't allow my birds to mate for this reason; I'd rather have a happy pet than a sick or dead breeder.

To avoid breeding, you can decrease the amount of daylight hours the birds have. My birds are uncovered from 7:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and their mating behavior has stopped. I'm not sure about the weather in Egypt, and I'm assuming it's pretty hot, but if you can decrease the temperature a couple of degrees that should help, too.

[coolhady13]

well, i told a friend to bring me sometoys from a shop near him , the store that i bought the birds from gave me 2 kind of seeds , first one looks like an egg like shape but taller and the second one look like little balls , i had the first one in their food bowls and they eat it from a while to another ,i tryed the second one as treat and they seem to like it more . I removed the nest box as u said , and i tryed some target training the female react with the stick and bite it them i give her a click and the second kind seeds .the male no action . But i will leave them today because i have an english exam tommorow , thanks for help kaylah btw i took them few pics that i will post this weekend after i finesh my exams

[kaylayuh]

I'm not sure what the larger seeds are, but the smaller seeds sound like they could be millet seeds. In the US, seed mixes usually contain them. The recommended diet for budgies is a pellet diet, though, so if you can find it and switch them to it, that would be best. If not, just make sure they get lots of fruit and vegetables.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. We're always happy to help.

[coolhady13]

i see , well i'll keep the millet seeds as treats , i dont know what a pellet diet is realy ? , i will take a picture for the seeds they are eating know so you can get to know what this is and tell me if its good or not ..i also have the cuttlefish bone for them in the cage but they dont seem to have touched it since they got here and i also gave them half an apple today and they didnt eat from it too i think .. is all that happening because they are still new to the place ? , also while i was target training them then giving them this millet seeds on a spoon because the still scared from my hand , one budgie was eating then when the other came close to eat the first one kinda bite it so it dosent eat ! , is that normal or should i seperate them ? ,and can you please explain more about sticking the millet seeds with honey ?

[coolhady13]

Keep in mind Lovebirds tend to make a very loud shrill noise, budgies aren't as loud, but they do chatter on almost constantly...at least that's been my experience.

well ,the birds cage is at my room so no worries about noise , im planning to get a lovebird after i finesh the 2nd school term because i saw a blue lovebird yesterday that i realy liked too.thanks for help sarah