Baby lovebird handling

[pukedkittens]

I'm new here and I adopted two young lovebirds from an animal shelter that I work at a few weeks ago. They're poIssibly only have 3 months at the oldest and I believe are going to be peach faced (they don't have their colors yet). I understand that having two lovebirds are difficult to train but I work 40+ hours a week and so does my boyfriend so we didn't want them entirely dependent on us. :)

I recently got their wings clipped at our local bird store and I bought them a beautiful big cage and lots of wonderful toys. They were on seed when I got them and I am slowly getting them into pellet (using a sort of fruity smelling kind and they already love it but seed more). Ever since I got their wings clipped I am capable of picking them up and getting them to hang out on the couch for a little pit or on my finger and they are very slowly learning to "step up".

I'm curious on how much you guys believe I should handle them. We were handling them almost 2-3 hours a day straight and I would talk to them at their cage but my boyfriend believes we should give them space for a few days. I'm curious if that's smart or we should go to the same route we were doing since there are two of them. They're still slightly fearful and shake a little when I have them out, one bites (but not hard at all) and the other glides over to their cage when they have enough.

Thanks!

[michael]

Anytime there are changes in diet, care should be taken to avoid malnutrition. Yes, an all seed diet may not be good, but, be careful not to add too much nutrition in the form of pellets. In order to avoid the complcations of overnutrition, we currently recommend that no more than 40% of a lovebirds diet consist of pellets. Now is also a good time to introduce other healthy foods such as leafy greens, carrots, sprouts, etc. Please see our "Lovebird care" forum for more information on what foods are healthy, and how to introduce them.

How much you should handle your lovies really depends on the amount of free time you have. While 2-3 hours a day really is quite short, sometimes you can add a little more in the morning or some other odd time. One thing, is that you don't over extend your avian schedule to the point where it interferes with other important activities. In my opinion, its better to get them used to a reasonable amount of time, than it is to overindulge them to the point where for some unforseen reason you can no longer keep up with their expectations. .. Certainly, there's no hurry here. .. More in our "Behavior and taming" forum. ........... Please keep us posted! .......:)

[JohnUK]

pukedkittens: Hello and I wish you and your boyfriend every success with your two new feathered friends. I got my first two lovebirds (Amor and Vida) when they were 11 weeks old and they had all their colouring, albeit muted. I've kept mine fully flighted - I just love seeing them fly in their room but it's down to personal choice regarding clipping. As what Michael mentions about diet (include some greens) - mine don't have any pellets but that again is down to personal choice of owners.

Have you given them names yet? How well do your two birds get on with each other?

It would be nice to see a photo' of your birds.