Are these signs of mating????

[abdul14459]

Hi. Im not so sure when do lovebirds mate and the signs of mating. I have two lovebirds. One is giggles and the other is Banana.

Giggles is 6 months old. And Banana is 5 months old. Giggles is a girl and Im guessing Banana is a boy because of the signs im getting.:whistle:

Well something strange happened yesterday. They were both on my finger when Giggles started flapping her wings then she opened her mouth slightly and made these weird sounds toward Banana. Her head was slightly moving up and down too.;)

Then my mother told me the other day Banana was on top of Giggles but it wasnt for long. Maybe 20 seconds. Are these signs showing that they are going to mate?

I thought they wouldnt mate until around 10 months of age. :confused:

Oh yeah one question. Where do they mate? Do they mate in the cage or do they mate in the nest box. Because i am thinking of getting a nest box but im not so sure they will have babies now.

[Dancelady]

Your birds are too young to really mate, but they can try to figure it out. This is the time that females will begin to learn what to do when they want to mate. The "boy" is a bit too young to really mate, but he can just keep trying until he gets the hang of it. He shouldn't actually mate until he is 11 months old, or older. And they need a firm perch or bottom to mate, because the male has to get up on the female, and he needs some help from her. 20 seconds is long enough, but don't worry, they won't mate yet.

[Mummieeva]

While most wait til older some do try sooner then they should. I would be sure to remove anything the female can shred to make a nest with for now. Also do not give them a nest box yet. A hen needs to be old enough for her body to safely make the eggs. Just keep an eye on them. It might come to you needing to have them in separate cages for a little while. Also rearranging the things inside their cage might help.



Steph

[Dancelady]

One thing someone mentioned is to replace all the perches with swing or boingy perches so they can't get a good grip on them. Anybody try this? It might help them not to check it out yet.

[Chickobee]

Did you have your birds DNA'd to know if you have a male and female?

When Pixie and Cricket were about 5-6 months old they also did the things you described and they are both females, and clutch mates. They would practice mating behaviours (getting on top of each other) and allo feeding. They also began fighting a lot so we put them into separate cages so they wouldn't hurt each other.

At that time we did not know they were both females. We didn't want them to breed so young, and also not with each other because they were from the same clutch.

[Mydoona]

my Keiko has started to try to mount his cat ball that he loves to play 'soccer' with but unfortunately for him it keeps rolling away when he jumps onto it..but he doesn't give up for a while, then does and goes to his happy hut and goes for it.