hello

[vikkirikki]

Hello everyone, I have just joined this forum with some questions about my lovebirds thankyou for your answers
I thought I better introduce myself. I am 10 years old and I live in Canberra, Australia. I LOVE birds. I have 37 bird books and I love drawing birds, I love reading about birds and I love everything about birds
I got my 2 lovebirds for my birthday more than a year ago and I love them. I love making toys for them I just wish that they would have babies. Or if they don't have babies, I wish they didn't bite me so I could train them and hold them and have them out of the cage.
I am thinking now that maybe I have 2 girl birds and maybe it would have been better if I only got one bird so it would bond with me. I am not sure as I have seen them mating, but once I saw the 'girl' on the top, so I don't know?
I don't want to sell these birds because I love them. But I just wish I could train and hold them!
Now Mum is thinking of maybe putting these birds in an outside aviary and getting a different bird but I just don't know at the moment what to do.

[Wolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum vikkirikki

I answered in one of your previous posts and considering your age, I feel like I was a little bit harsh although honest about breeding your birds. If I was too harsh with you I am sorry. I am very glad that you decided to introduce yourself to us and tell us a little about yourself.

If you will be patient with your lovebirds you can still tame them. It just takes longer to do it when there are two of them because they have each other to play with. They will always like each other better than they like us. Still if you go slow and do not rush it they will accept you as their friend too.

Right now we need to look at the food that you are feeding them to make sure they are getting all of the things in the food that they need. You said that there were 6 clutches of eggs and even if both of your birds are girls that is a lot of eggs and it is very hard on their bodies to lay that many eggs. The eggshells are made out of the same stuff as their bones are, calcium. If they are not getting enough calcium then the eggs will take some from their bones making the bones easier to break. One way to help your birds to get enough of the mineral calcium is to hang a cuttlebone in their cage for them to eat. Please do this if you have not already done so. Another way is to give them foods such as broccoli that are rich in calcium, I like this way the best, but I still give all of my birds a cuttlebone too.

It would be a good idea to buy some fake lovebird eggs so that you can replace the real ones when they are laid. I am telling you this because raising baby birds is a lot of hard work, even with the help of the parent birds. There are so many things that can go wrong and if they do the babies will die. So it is better to replace the real eggs with the fake ones until you are more experienced and can learn how to do it from a good breeder. There is a lot to learn and I do not know enough, myself to raise baby birds, just so you know.
I will try to help you with taming your love birds in the topic that you made about the birds biting you, see you there, and thank you for the great introduction.

[Pajarita]

My dear, you need to find out their gender because you can't keep two female lovebirds together. It works out when they are young but, as they get older, the stronger and/or more daring one will start bullying the weaker and/or shier one and, eventually, this one will get hurt or even killed. You can keep two males and a male and female together but never two females. It's a complete NONO with lovebirds.

[Chantilly]

Hi vivkkiriki, If you just keep on working with your babies you can get them freindly, and we are all here ready to help you do that! So please do keep us updated with what you decide to do and then with your progress!
First off, I dont know anything about lovebirds, but if you have two females, and if you cant have two females housed together because they will hurt eachother, then you will need to either buy another cage or sell one.
If you want us to help you out with training them, we can help you out through what we have learnt with our own birds. Their are different ways to train them out of biting you. I would start by target training them. So basicly you get a chopstick, hold it out and say 'target' or 'touch' and when your bird touches it give it a treat. If they dont take treats from you, we will approach it diffrently.
Just please dont give up on them, you may get a bite or two, but you can train it out of them a

[vikkirikki]

thankyou for your replies. I have a cuttlefish hanging up in their cage. I might look for some fake eggs. Mum will find out how much it costs to find out if they are boy and girl or both girls. They seem to get on very well most of the time? I have seen them mating, but once the ' girl' was on the top? can this happen?
I have been watching videos on target training this afternoon
thankyou

[Pajarita]

Yes, it can happen when you have two females. Here in USA, you can get the sexing done from online labs for only $25.

[liz]

thankyou for your replies. I have a cuttlefish hanging up in their cage. I might look for some fake eggs. Mum will find out how much it costs to find out if they are boy and girl or both girls. They seem to get on very well most of the time? I have seen them mating, but once the ' girl' was on the top? can this happen?
I have been watching videos on target training this afternoon
thankyou

I had two cockatiels, Lemone' and Twinkle, who could not mate. They just couldn't get the position right. They should have learned from the others but no.

[Chantilly]

thankyou for your replies. I have a cuttlefish hanging up in their cage. I might look for some fake eggs. Mum will find out how much it costs to find out if they are boy and girl or both girls. They seem to get on very well most of the time? I have seen them mating, but once the ' girl' was on the top? can this happen?
I have been watching videos on target training this afternoon
thankyou

I had two cockatiels, Lemone' and Twinkle, who could not mate. They just couldn't get the position right. They should have learned from the others but no.

Haha yes, Daisy our duck is like this, just cant figure it out!