hi my lovely friendz,
hope all is well with u. In my last blog I posted something about valentines day.I always have a curiosity about this word,why do we celebrate it,how its name derived and a lot.
Thats why I surf net and collected some information about it and shared with all of u!
Today,a thought came in my mind something about “love birds”. Na not lovers but real “love birds”.
I am planning to have a new pet,and thinking of buying a new pair of “love birds”.I have never been interested in pets, but it was 3 months back I bought my lovely pair of “goldfish”.
They are like my babies,I adore them a lot.
Anyways, now I am planning to havea a pair of “love birds”.
I do have collected some information about these lovely creatures and thought to shared with all of u!
Hope u enjoyed that, having pet is the most wonderful feeling.
Given below informations about “love birds”-
Description:
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A lovebird (genus Agapornis, Greek for “lovebird”) is a very social and affectionate parrot.
The name Lovebird stems from these birds’ affectionate nature. This is reflected by the birds name in other languages: in German, “die Unzertrennlichen,” and in French “les inséparables”- “inseparables.” For this reason, many people feel strongly that lovebirds in captivity should be kept only in pairs. Others believe that lovebirds, like other parrots, are social animals who can bond with human companions when given a great deal of care and attention.
Lovebirds are about 13-17 cm in size, 40-60 grams in weight and characterized by a small, stocky build and a short, blunt tail. This puts them among the smallest parrots in the world although their beak is rather large for their overall size. Many lovebirds are green, although color mutations can feature many different colors. Some lovebird species, like Fischer’s, black cheeked, and the yellow collared lovebird, have a white ring around the eye. Lifespan is 10 to 15 years.
Care and feeding:
Most lovebirds love a bath either in a flat earthenware dish or by spraying them with a light mist of lukewarm water. If you use a bathing dish, you will see the birds perch on the edge and dip their heads and upper bodies in the water and beating their wings. They prefer this kind of bath to getting into the water.
Lovebirds generally maintain their nails and beaks on their own through climbing and chewing. Another good use they make of their tree branches.
In the wild, lovebirds feed on seeds, berries, fruits, grains, grasses, leaf buds, and agricultural crops of corn, maize and figs.
Foods available for Lovebirds include formulated diets, either pelleted or extruded, seed only diets, and small parrot mixes which offer a mixture of both. There are pros and cons to feeding only a formulated diet as well as feeding only a seed diet. A formulated diet provides a good nutritional base so does not require the addition of vitamins, however many parrots become bored with it due to the lack of variety. A seed only diet offers much more variety but requires additional vitamin and calcium supplements. Lovebirds need not only nutritional requirements met but also variety for psychological enrichment.
A lovebirds’s diet will consist of 1 1/2 to 2 ounces (45-60 grams) of feed daily for a single bird. A diet consisting of a small parrot mix along with a variety of supplements and vitamins is generally regarded as suitable; also a formulated diet along with greens, fruits, and vegetable supplements but without additional vitamins is also regarded as suitable, and is a more current trend.
Supplements include fresh vegetables, greens, tree branches for the bark, some fruits, and millet spray. Some of the fruit supplements include berries, apples, grapes, pears, bananas, and kiwi. Some of the greens and vegetable supplements include spinach, endive, watercress, chickweed, radish, parsley, dandelions, carrot tops, corn on the cob, peas, endive, field lettuce, and various garden herbs. Additional proteins can be offered such as nuts, try some unshelled peanuts as well as hazelnuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and chestnuts. Vitamins can be added to the food or drinking water. A cuttlebone, or gravel and oyster shell in a separate dish can be offered to provide calcium. Do not feed avocado as it can be toxic to birds!
Their food and water dishes are best if earthenware or porcelain as they will get gnawed if plastic. Lovebirds drink a lot of water, so will need fresh drinking water every day.
Housing:
Lovebirds are very active birds, so a cage best suited to adequately house them must provide a lot of space. A minimum of 32 x 20 x 20 (81 x 50 x 50 cm) per pair of birds is recommended with about four perches, feed and water dishes and an area for a bath. When you use a small cage, you must let your pet out daily to fly around.
If you are housing pairs of lovebirds here are a few guidelines: Try to house only one species of lovebird as mixing species can cause serious fights. House either one pair of lovebirds or three pairs, never two pairs or there will be fighting. Each pair needs about 35 cubic feet of space.
A roomy indoor aviary, a bird room, or an outdoor aviary (depending on your area) are all good choices. The aviary needs plenty of light and fresh air. The outdoor aviary needs to have a protected shelter that can be heated and cooled where necessary. Flights are recommended to be a minimum of 6′ x 6′ x 3′ (183 x 183 x 91 cm) with plenty of perches or branches at least 1 1/2″ (15 cm) thick.
Lovebirds like special resting places. Nest boxes placed up high, all at the same level and all of the same type work well and help prevent fights. A nest box for a lovebird is 8″ x 8″ x 8″ (20 x 20 x 20 cm) or 10″ x 6″ x 6″ (25 x 15 x 15 cm).
Diet
Lovebirds require a variety of food, such as pellets, fruits, seeds, and vegetables. As a regular food, pellets are recommended, as the millet food generally sold in pet stores has too much fat in it and is not a significant source of nutrition. Pellets specially made for birds provide a well-balanced diet. Fresh greens, such as romaine lettuce, are also extremely beneficial if not essential.
Potential problems
Lovebirds are very vocal birds, making loud, high-pitched noises. They make noise all day, but especially during the first morning hours.
As stated above, lovebirds are also very active, and love to chew things. When they are let out of their cage, it would be wise to watch them carefully, and protect any furniture, electrical wiring or anything else that they could possibly chew on.
Lovebirds are all of the genus Agapornis and can produce offspring with other lovebirds within the same genus, these are thus hybrids, and are often sterile. It is recommended to only place birds of the same species together, or of the same sex, for the sake of the potentially faulted hybrid offspring.
Social Behaviors:
Lovebirds are very social birds. Generally is thought that it is essential for their good health and happiness that they be kept in pairs, not singly. If you have a single lovebird, you must provide the necessary social interaction that it is missing from another bird. These birds develop fierce loyalties to their keeper or their mate.
Aside from their social nature toward you or their mate, they can be extremely aggressive towards other birds. You must be certain that all pairs get along together, and that they are true “pairs”, not mismatched. Bonded pairs constantly groom each other and will feed each other from the crop during breeding season and all year round.
These little birds will chatter all day long. They will hide in their nest box if they are startled by a sudden noise, if they spot a potential predator, or if it gets cold and windy.
Lovebirds are very vocal birds, making loud, high-pitched noises. They make noise all day, but especially during the first morning hours.
As stated above, lovebirds are also very active, and love to chew things. When they are let out of their cage, it would be wise to watch them carefully, and protect any furniture, electrical wiring or anything else that they could possibly chew on.
Lovebirds are all of the genus Agapornis and can produce offspring with other lovebirds within the same genus, these are thus hybrids, and are often sterile. It is recommended to only place birds of the same species together, or of the same sex, for the sake of the potentially faulted hybrid offspring.
Handling/Training:
To have a tame lovebird, choose a young single bird. Young birds have an amazing ability to learn tricks and be affectionate, whereas adults are very difficult to tame and generally won’t learn a lot of tricks or imitate behaviors. Hand-raised youngsters are easiest as they are already quite socialized and tame, but are not always available.
Taming involves acceptance and trust between you and your bird. It means spending a lot of time with your bird daily. Start with talking softly and making slow movements. Once your bird is comfortable with you, then you can begin hand-taming. Use a dowel and push it gently against the birds chest while offering a treat to coax it up onto the dowel. This may take many tries. Once it is comfortable with stepping up onto a dowel, substitute your finger for the dowel.
Lovebirds are not considered one of the best talkers, and only some may learn a few words.
Breeding/Reproduction:
One of the pleasures of lovebirds is that they are easy to breed. Each pair of birds will need 2 nest boxes for sleeping and nesting. These boxes need to be of the same type and size, and placed at the same height on the same wall. Lovebirds will breed willingly as single pairs and some species of lovebirds can be bred in a colony setting, especially suited to this is the white eye-ring group of lovebirds. If you are breeding in a colony setting, it is very important to provide many more nest boxes than their are pairs of birds to minimize fighting. The nest boxes should all be the same and mounted at the same height of the enclosure. Also, be diligent in watching for fighting as it can lead to death.
The female will lay about 5 eggs, though the clutch could be as few as 3 eggs or as many as 8 eggs. The incubation period is 22 – 25 days, with 75% to 80% of the eggs hatching. The hen will start to brood after the second egg is hatched. Often the male will join the hen in the nest. The chicks will begin to leave the nest in about 38 – 50 days and will be independent about 2 weeks after leaving the nest.
The sexing of lovebirds falls into three categories:
- The first group are different in their outward appearance and can be classified as dimorphic. This first group consists of the Abyssinian Lovebird (Agapornis toranta), the Madagascar Lovebird (Agapornis cana), and the Red-faced Lovebird (Agapornis pullaria).
- The second or intermediate group are harder to differentiate by appearance. This second group consists of the Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis reseicollis) and the Black-collared Lovebird (Agapornis swinderniana).
- In the third group, the white eye-ring group, there are no definite differences that can be seen. In the white eye-ring group are the Nyasa Lovebird (Agapornis personata lilianae), the Black-cheeked Lovebird (Agapornis personata nigrigenis), the Fischer’s Lovebird (Agapornis personata fisheri), and the Masked Lovebird (Agapornis personata personata). The sexing of the white eye-ring group must be determined by either a surgical probe, endoscopy, which can be done by many veterinarians or by a DNA testing, usually a blood sample or a few plucked feathers sent to be diagnosed in a lab.
Some visual characteristics that may aid in determining sex are that the female is heavier bodied than the male and will sit more broadly with legs apart, while the males sit more upright. A females tail will appear more square while a males will appear more rounded. When observing the nesting behavior, the female will do most of the nest building work.
An anal inspection can be done but takes experience in sexing these birds to make a fair determination. Basically there are two bones called the ossa pubes on the ventral side of the pelvis and the female will be spread wider apart than the male.
