Love bird truth or myth

[Debbieknd]

Recently I was given many babies and young lovebirds and a pair of breeders.
I was told never keep an odd number of them in a cage together..they will harm the odd bird..
Also.. never put a female in the male cage first..always introduce the new male in the female cage..I have mostly females
And do they bond forever? male and female bonding
I am thinking on allowing the pair to breed..in tips for me.
and I have just finish hand feeding the two love birds babies.. they are so gentle eaters compared to my Budgies

[Eriisu-chan]

The only part I could answer is that yes, an odd number of lovies could result in a two-on-one bully fest... I'd avoid it at all cost, but you can never know for sure with any birds how they'll react to any given situation... :shrug2:

[Shirley]

With your typical mammal breeding - the male visits the female.

With birds - what I've done AFTER I KNOW the birds are bonding and accepting of each other outside their cages - and have no worries of fights, injuries, etc, I put them in a neutral cage together at the SAME time. This can be a cage one of them is already using, but hasn't been in for a week or two, and it's been cleaned, rearranged, etc to become a neutral territory. Then, I watch them carefully, might even return them to their respective individual temp cages for the night, and repeat the next day for a few days.

[Debbieknd]

Wonderful ideal...Thanks

[SadennaAndFlock]

I have heard this from a few different people I know that breed lovies.

I have also heard parrotlets can be the same way any truth to this Shirley???

[Shirley]

Parrotlets -- now they are certainly an exception to all the "breeding" methods!

When randomly paired, one may love the other immediately, attack with intent to kill, you won't know.

NEVER trust 3 to a cage, and never trust two same-sex together. The day will likely come that they decide to violently claim territory.

If the male/female are caged separately, such that no one can bite toes (no cage dividers, separate cages), and they appear to "get along" after a couple of weeks, then try them outside the cages - walking around on top of their cages... any sign of the slightest aggression or posturing? If so, wait. Once they accept each other, IF they accept each other, they'll preen, snuggle, it will be obvious. Then I cage them together under supervision and separate at night and when I'm gone. Then back together again when I'm around. After a few days/week/s of this, I pretty much will know if they are a "pair" or not.

Don't expect an adult parrotlet to accept a youngster as a mate -

Two babies raised together, opposite sex, usually get along just fine as they mature, but they may not choose to breed. Sunshine and Bluebell were raised together from 10 wks old, loved each other, preened each other, got upset if they were separated. After 3 or 4 yrs, they are still best buddies, but no sign of breeding interest. Maybe they are the exception - who knows.

I'm not sure if lovebirds fit any of this criteria or not.

[SadennaAndFlock]

Now have you ever had a situation with a parrotlet that they seemed to get along and were really good for a long period of time after being put together then out of the blue one would attack the other?

[Shirley]

No....