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Lovebirds question

3159 Views 27 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  aluz, 
aluz
Hi everyone, last month I rescued a blue masked lovebird and after quarantine time was over I introduced it slowly to the rest of the flock, including budgies, a canary and two fischer's lovebirds.
Yesterday, I noticed a change on one of my fischer's behaviours, the younger one, Nico who seems to have matured, because he fed and afterwards proceeded to mate with his companion. I also noticed a low chatter right before the mating, it seemed Nico was trembling and chattering low while doing a bit of dance similar to what pigeons do to impress their females.
My question is, is the low chattering a typical male behaviour, or do females also do that? Because last year, Nico's mate also did the chatter thing and opened its wings for mating purposes, but little Nico was young and didn't know what he was supposed to do. They both shred paper and spend time on the nest and I'm somewhat confused. I'm not so sure whether they are a same sex pair or not.
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aluz
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Here are some pics of them. I noticed the changes in the behaviour ever since I put the two cages of lovebirds close to each other (only a few inches apart).

Fischer's lovebirds, blue one supposedly female and Nico the male maybe.




Blue masked lovebird


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F
Very beautiful birds!!

I'm in the same boat sex wise..I caught a wild Love Bird but have no idea what sex it is although I think its a female due to its behavior..The only way to know for sure is an DNA test, nuts...lol Yup, and I always get it wrong on the Maury show...

I guess you can see what happens, but I would think by now you would have seen some mating going on unless...well, just great friends..;)
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aluz
Thank you! Indeed I saw mating, two times last Monday. One in the morning and the other at late afternoon. I have been checking on them more closely and see Nico feeding his mate, but he also spends a lot of time inside the nest. I think they mate in there too. And when they see me getting closer to their cage, it's a rush to the nest, they almost run over one another!
Anyway, I will continue my close watch on them to see if there will be more changes and possibly some eggs too.
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sr331033
Wow that really is confusing! When we bred our lovebirds, they did both spend time in the nest. However, only our male made that chattery noise during the mating rituals. Wish I could give more tips but I'm really not sure. Lovebirds are so tricky to sex!
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NanaLucy129
Your birds are all so colorful ..... just beautiful!
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aluz
Thank you! I get my hands full with them! The rescued blue masked one, I call it the penguin, is very mischievous and wants to destroy the cage so that he can be with my other lovebirds, he's also very loud too!
I have to rewire a new cage I bought for him less than a week ago, because he already figured out a way to escape through the food and water containers.
As to the fischer's lovebirds pair, they keep on mating on a daily basis and for now there are no eggs. Nico keeps on doing the low chatter noise, the "female" doesn't do that, only in the past when she was in heat did she do that and also spread the wings to assume mating position, but at the time, Nico wasn't interested because he was too young.
I will see what happens, and if there is any change, I will let you all know!
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Thelion151589
is it possible for you to post pictures of their tails?? like a back view of your birds, because my little bro researched on my lovebirds to see if the where male and female, and i didn't know what i had he sexed em for me lol, the male has a pointy tail and female doesn't i have a blue masked lovebird and green masked
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aluz
The shape of their tails look all the same to me, but I will try to take those pictures.
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aluz
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I managed to find some photos of the pair I took a few months ago.




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aluz
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And a few more of the blue masked days after its rescue:




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Thelion151589
aluz said:
I managed to find some photos of the pair I took a few months ago.




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my brother thinks that they yellow green orange one is a female and the masked love bird male
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aluz
The one with the orange head never had the "typical female in heat" behaviour, in fact, that one is showing the all male behaviour, feeding the violet one and mating assuming the male on top position.
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aluz
Hi again, I have news so I thought I might as well give an update on my fischer's lovebirds.
I have been keeping an eye on them as I do with the rest of the birds in the flock and right when I was about to give up and think I had two males instead of a true pair, even though the violet one was evidently more heavy "down there" and the poo was quite different and those signs have been present for many days, weeks even and I would check the nest and found no egg, two days ago, finally there was an egg and was so happy!
It was broken, though, but it's okay, because now I know the violet lovebird is a female and Nico most certainly a male. They will probably not be successful in their first clutch, but maybe the next time they will have babies!

I'm now expecting the female to lay at least one more egg, because she is quite heavy at the moment.
Does anyone know how many eggs they can lay and the time between them?
Is it the same amount of time as the budgies?
I was surprised at the size of the egg, it's like two times the size of a budgie's egg or even a bit more!
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pmiaria
I was told that they can lay up to 8 eggs. The eggs are laid every other day and the female usually will start to incubate the eggs after the 2nd one is laid.
Mine has started to lay her first egg but unfortunately I know we won't see any babies since she has mated with a budgie :eek: I agree that the poo is large and watery (too much actually). The problem I also have is that she has laid her egg at the bottom of the cage and I cannot do any cleaning since she will try to bite me...
Your lovebirds are gorgeous.
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aluz
Thank you! I didn't know lovebirds took so much of a liking on budgies, yours must really be extra special!

So I guess the breeding is very similar to the budgies, even though they normally lay 6 eggs on average, but I had some that laid till 8 eggs, but not all hatched.
Breeding lovebirds is quite new to me and I'm trying not to spy on them too much, but I still take a peek at the nest two times per day, one in the morning and the other before I put the birds to bed.
For now, my female isn't showing any agression towards me, but if she sees the dog sniffing around the cage, I see her beak open and ready to attack, but she never actually hurt him, it's more like a warning. They are both kind of afraid when people get close to the cage and take refuge inside the nest. I just hope this time they don't break any more eggs, she laid the second one yesterday night.
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pmiaria
aluz said:
Thank you! I didn't know lovebirds took so much of a liking on budgies, yours must really be extra special!

So I guess the breeding is very similar to the budgies, even though they normally lay 6 eggs on average, but I had some that laid till 8 eggs, but not all hatched.
Breeding lovebirds is quite new to me and I'm trying not to spy on them too much, but I still take a peek at the nest two times per day, one in the morning and the other before I put the birds to bed.
For now, my female isn't showing any agression towards me, but if she sees the dog sniffing around the cage, I see her beak open and ready to attack, but she never actually hurt him, it's more like a warning. They are both kind of afraid when people get close to the cage and take refuge inside the nest. I just hope this time they don't break any more eggs, she laid the second one yesterday night.
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My lovebird was introduced to my budgies from a very young age and she probably thinks she's a budgie :) She even "sounds" like them. Mine has also laid her second. She will very briefly come out of the cage to shred some paper and tuck it in her wings and return it to her nesting place. If I stand near her cage, she's fine. If I try to put my hand inside the cage, even at the opposite side, she will "warn" me to stay away...
Please keep us posted with your lovebird news. I can't wait to see any cuties that could hatch:)
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aluz
That's funny, seems like our lovebirds are in tune in terms of egg laying!
Ah, so that's why she gets along with them so well!
I also had a budgie that had a very close relationship with a canary and chirped like him, but in this case mine was "bilingual", sang normal budgie and mixed some canary chirps in between.
I too can't wait to see what will happen, but I think it's best to not be so excited, because it's their first time breeding and it usually doesn't work out so well. I am rooting for them though, and have my fingers crossed!:D
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pmiaria
aluz said:
That's funny, seems like our lovebirds are in tune in terms of egg laying!
Ah, so that's why she gets along with them so well!
I also had a budgie that had a very close relationship with a canary and chirped like him, but in this case mine was "bilingual", sang normal budgie and mixed some canary chirps in between.
I too can't wait to see what will happen, but I think it's best to not be so excited, because it's their first time breeding and it usually doesn't work out so well. I am rooting for them though, and have my fingers crossed!:D
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I'm also rooting for them and so are my budgies and lovebird.:fingerx: The next 20 days are the tricky ones.
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aluz
Thank you for the support, Patricia! And be sure to thank your flock, too!
For now, they have 3 eggs as can be seen in the picture below, and they seem to be doing a good job with them so far.
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