Boelle and Luna.

[Joannadk]

Hi all.

This is a tread about Boelle and Luna.
They are 2 Fischers lovebirds. Boelle is 2 years old, and we have had him for a month and Luna is 3½ months old and we have had her for 2 weeks. We don't know the gender of either of them.

Here are some pictures of them http://s1227.photobucket.com/home/Jasmindk/index

They get along fine and seems to be a happy pair. They live in a big cage and are out flying around 5-8 hours every day and they just love it.

I had a very nice morning today. Boelle actually ate millets of my hand again - YAAAAAAY

He has done it before, the last 4-5 days, before we had Luna (2 weeks ago), but stopped after she came and they were moved to their big cage. I expected that, since I figured that Boelle would rather bond with Luna, than with me.
Luna is still shy/scared of my hand, but she was very interested, when Boelle ate from the millet. She even moved closer and ended up begging a little millet from Boelle, which he gave her.
So I think she'll come around sometime in the near future.

Happy birdgreetings from

Joannadk

[linda040899]

I fully believe that birds need feathered companions in addition to human ones. I can't provide all the kinds of attention that my parrots need and I'm only left out of the equation if I choose to be left out. Lovebirds are naturally curious and have to check out anything/everything. If you let them come to you, you can be fairly sure that they will. With 2, it's like follow the leader.

Patience is key to working with any parrot so having no expectations and seeing where the relationship goes saves a lot of disappointment. :) Keep up the good work!

[Joannadk]

Hi All.

A couple of weeks has passed since I wrote. And I thought I would just give you an update about Boelle and Luna.

At the moment I'm trying to make them eat pellets. I got a packet of Zupreem pellets home yesterday and started by laying some up on the cupboard where they usually play, and they tasted a little of them there. I also put pellets in another dish, besides their normal seeddish, but they didn't touch them yesterday and neither this morning.

BUT, this morning when they were out flying, a little of the pellets from yesterday still lay on the cupboard and they played a little around with them and ended up eating some of them. I put a bit more up there and now they're out and eating them :happy:
It seems like the pellets on the cupboard is much better than the pellets in their dish, but never mind.

I still don't know if I'll switch them to full pellets and veggies/fruit, since I have heard that Fischers lovebirds are from the Highlands Grasssteppe in the Northern Tanzania and recon that they probably live of grasses, grass seeds and so on. And by that, they probably need some seeds in their diet? Or am I completely wrong?

And guess what. Luna is actually eating millets of my hand too now. Boelle gets closer and closer to my hand and the distance is about 5 cm., from my hand to his beak when he eats millets of my hand. Luna's usually distance has been about 15-20 cm,., but yesterday she moved closer and was only 10 cm. from my hand :rotfl

So I'm and very happy lovebird owner at the moment.

Joannadk

[linda040899]

I still don't know if I'll switch them to full pellets and veggies/fruit, since I have heard that Fischers lovebirds are from the Highlands Grasssteppe in the Northern Tanzania and recon that they probably live of grasses, grass seeds and so on. And by that, they probably need some seeds in their diet? Or am I completely wrong?
You are absolutely 100% correct in your thoughts on following their diet from the natural habitat. I've not found that pellets really make a difference one way or the other (unless you feed too many) if the diet is varied and balanced. I, personally, use a seed based diet, including sunflower seed, and I offer fresh food and maybe 10% pellets. Sprouted seed is very nutritious so that's an option you can try. My aviary has many senior citizens who are in good health and most of those would rather starve than eat a pellet!

Per my avian vet, more than 40% pellets in the diets of small birds is too much nutrition and can lead to death by kidney failure. I would let them have a few pellets outside of their cage and offer a varied diet inside.