Gurdarian
06-29-2014, 07:41 PM
Hello, my name is Simon. I have joined your community in the hope I can get some help from a situation that seems like a dead man digging his own grave. I suffer from mental disorders, one being bipolar, and it makes you impulsive. My mental health workers told me many times to get a pet, as a pet is supposed to help with mental illness, something to look after something to care for. I live in a block of flats, so dogs and cats were out of the question. I did not want a hamster and for some reason I was walking passed a pet shop saw these lovely cute lovebirds and thought I will get a pair of them. This is a long story so I hope there is enough room, I was told LB's needs plenty of space to fly around, and I could not find a decent cage. So the pet owner said to me I could have their huge cage (they seemed decent people in a nice pet shop) they had in the front of the store, for a cheap price on one proviso, I took the spare bird. If I knew them what I know now, I would have said no way, but she said the poor thing would get all depressed and she said she was giving me the cage for a literally half price and the extra bird free. I thought OK. I was quite excited, I had read up on the birds and checked with my neighbours saying I had them coming and they might make a little bit of noise and they were OK about it.
The birds arrived and immediately started squawking and making that sound that like someone scrapping their hands down a black board. They were terrified, they would not go near me and if I tried doing the examples given in the books, or on the web, to make them trust me, they just squawked at me even more. Over time, they started to calm down, but then the problems started, the spare Romulus, just started to sit and stare at the coupled pair and pine, like a dog that had lost his master, it was so sad to watch I was heartbroken. On top of that, I cannot get them to eat anything fresh, like veg or fruit, they will not touch it in fact they hardly eat anything. I then made it my mission to find Romulus a mate, and after a month of searching I found one, a man had five young birds dark ones with red beaks. I said I could only afford one but he did a deal and I ended up with three. So now, I have six lovebirds, the white female the one who dominated the two males was the least happy at her new houseguests, and goes around trying to bite the feet of the poor little things, they are only 3 months old. The white female (I just call her White and her male Red) though with Red, used to tease the other one Romulus, to distraction; let us say she was not faithful to Red, and had liaisons with Romulus when I let then out of the cage. Lovebirds may couple for life, but they mate with any bird.
Now to begin with it was three against three, as they had a mini battle of Britain around the cage. The guy I bought them off, said as long as they were not nesting, lovebirds get on with each other, I must have stupid naive fool written across my forehead. I am sure you are all laughing by now at my idiocy.
Anyway already two of the younger birds are starting to look like they will couple, and Romulus is like some dork on a dance floor not doing anything. He is still fawning after the big white female, and to be honest they are confusing the **** out of me, I have read two lovebird books and they are nothing like how they are described in the books. I know I am a naive fool, and I do not know what to do. I have tried everything to please the birds; they have lots of toys and swings, springy things, and other things lovebirds like, but as soon as I put my hand in the cage the fly away as quickly as possible. Yes, I know I have been a naive fool and it is still early days, the birds have only been with me a month and the other three since Saturday, but I was in a serious cycle accident and the strong painkillers are meaning I can hardly stay awake, which is making it harder on me at the moment. They are easy to look after food and water wise, I change it twice a day, though they never seem to eat any of their food I’ve tried to slip in apples, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, you name it they won’t touch any of it. I was hoping Romulus would couple with one of the new birds, but he is not making any effort at all. I feel like a total failure. Help please.
The birds arrived and immediately started squawking and making that sound that like someone scrapping their hands down a black board. They were terrified, they would not go near me and if I tried doing the examples given in the books, or on the web, to make them trust me, they just squawked at me even more. Over time, they started to calm down, but then the problems started, the spare Romulus, just started to sit and stare at the coupled pair and pine, like a dog that had lost his master, it was so sad to watch I was heartbroken. On top of that, I cannot get them to eat anything fresh, like veg or fruit, they will not touch it in fact they hardly eat anything. I then made it my mission to find Romulus a mate, and after a month of searching I found one, a man had five young birds dark ones with red beaks. I said I could only afford one but he did a deal and I ended up with three. So now, I have six lovebirds, the white female the one who dominated the two males was the least happy at her new houseguests, and goes around trying to bite the feet of the poor little things, they are only 3 months old. The white female (I just call her White and her male Red) though with Red, used to tease the other one Romulus, to distraction; let us say she was not faithful to Red, and had liaisons with Romulus when I let then out of the cage. Lovebirds may couple for life, but they mate with any bird.
Now to begin with it was three against three, as they had a mini battle of Britain around the cage. The guy I bought them off, said as long as they were not nesting, lovebirds get on with each other, I must have stupid naive fool written across my forehead. I am sure you are all laughing by now at my idiocy.
Anyway already two of the younger birds are starting to look like they will couple, and Romulus is like some dork on a dance floor not doing anything. He is still fawning after the big white female, and to be honest they are confusing the **** out of me, I have read two lovebird books and they are nothing like how they are described in the books. I know I am a naive fool, and I do not know what to do. I have tried everything to please the birds; they have lots of toys and swings, springy things, and other things lovebirds like, but as soon as I put my hand in the cage the fly away as quickly as possible. Yes, I know I have been a naive fool and it is still early days, the birds have only been with me a month and the other three since Saturday, but I was in a serious cycle accident and the strong painkillers are meaning I can hardly stay awake, which is making it harder on me at the moment. They are easy to look after food and water wise, I change it twice a day, though they never seem to eat any of their food I’ve tried to slip in apples, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, you name it they won’t touch any of it. I was hoping Romulus would couple with one of the new birds, but he is not making any effort at all. I feel like a total failure. Help please.