It's Now Been Half A Year.

[Iosevus]

Hello again Lovebird Cultists,

I've now had Fia for just over half a year and would like to do some sharing cause...sharing.
I still tend to refer to Fia as a she even though I'm now leaning towards Fia being a male.. reasons being, not aggressive at all when my hands are in cage, hasn't tried to claim anything as a nest, likes to chew but has never tried to make a strip and would rather chew on harder stuff, and every morning when I pick him/her up he tries to "make breakfast" for my fingers. One day I'll get that DNA test done, but it doesn't matter too much, I love my little birdie even if it was a no-gender.

Fia has turned to preening my hands a bit too much as well, tearing skin off a bit viciously at times. Also in the recent weeks he has taken to trying to sit on my hands more than my shoulder, it makes typing hard with a lovie on your finger.

I've found Fia loves dried figs and papaya the best. Also puffed whole grain brown rice cakes with a dash of cinnamon are delicious and fun to make a mess with. But even with a dishful of favorite deserts, s/he'll always want what I'm having instead.

And that favorite toy I've been able to find is nothing more than plain wooden toothpicks, I break the sharp ends off mostly cause I think s/he is thinking about stabbing me in the neck to steal my food.

Being in-between jobs through the holidays, Fia gets to spend almost 14 hours a day crawling all over me which has turned him/her into a bit of a brat, nipping at me and demanding to be petted at times. S/he's even up past bedtime right now cause I got lovebird eyes, just as affective as puppy dog eyes, and a vigorous attempt to stay on me when I tried to tuck him/her in.

Anyways, there were a million little things to share, new questions and new worries but I'm trying to keep this brief, and get back to worrying about leaving Fia alone for christmas for possibly 12+ hours.

Thanks for reading!
Happy Holidays.

[linda040899]

Thanks for sharing this great update! Sounds like Fia has turned you into the perfect lovebird slave! Lovebirds are very social and will normally want to be where ever you are and eat whatever you are eating.......sharing! Rule with lovebirds is that if it's theirs, it's theirs and if it's yours, it's also theirs!

I tend to agree with you when you suggest that Fia is a male but more important is that he's happy and has a wonderful home!

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

Happy holidays!

I totally get the she/he thing. When we got our Sunny, we leaned toward female, though all behaviors past adolescence pointed toward male... we just got into the habit of saying "she". Same thing goes with our current pair. I'm pretty sure they are both male, but the hard habit of say "she" wins out most of the time. lol

Merry Christmas to you and Fia!

[Enko_chan]

Haha, yes we get the gender benders. Our lovies display quite a bit of androgynous behavior and even though we've known for sometime that "Freyja" is male, for quite a while we called "him" a "she" :)

I think Frey likes to be a part of the "who's a good boy?" when the flock is getting treats rather than waiting until the good boys and good girls are getting treats and then, "now you too Frey!" One day Frey came up with Odie for the "good boy" part and we decided we should probably call Frey a he from now on and have done so without any complaint from him. Still, though, both Frey and his mate Odie both have behaviors that could go in either direction and they are both DNA male. There were a bunch of us who were absolutely certain that Frey was a hen for a long time!

As for the preening around the fingers- well, congrats first of all that your bird is so comfortable with you. Its wonderful to have a parrot of any kind that learns that level of trust, and not all of them who do come to like our hands. Are you looking for advice on how to mitigate painful preening? I have some experience with this and I'm sure others here do as well. Is it aggressive preening or more like Fia enjoys the feeling of it/is looking to get rid of something he does not want to be there?

[Iosevus]

I would say it's pretty aggressive. When I pull my hand away cause he's biting raw skin, Fia will twist and pull. Sometimes it seems he is really digging in to get a hold of delicious me. In fact, Fia is trying to right now as I type this. Couple spots drew just a pinprick of blood. Maybe I just taste good.

It started very gently, so I didn't do much, but now it's like one of the only things Fia wants to do when my hands are close. Sometimes I can distract him with food or a toothpick, other times I have to constantly shoo him away from my hands. If anyone has any good tips, I certainly would welcome them.

[linda040899]

Does Fia have any really favorite toys that would serve as a distraction? If not, you can try beak rubbing if you haven't already. Put your thumb on one side of the upper beak and the index finger on the other. Gently rubbing feels good to parrots and it may distract him. Question is for how long? This sounds like something Fia enjoys doing and has gotten too rough for your liking. Could be there's no realization that it hurts. Lovebirds can be VERY peristent when they want something. You may actually have to go so far as to hide your hands so they can't be attacked!

[Iosevus]

I'm the favorite toy :P The only thing I've seen him play with is a large hanging toy that came with the cage I got him in and it's a bit large to be taken out and used as a toy.
As for petting, I usually just scrub the back of his neck and top of his head but after that if my hand is close, skin snack time. Sometimes he'll tear apart toothpicks for awhile, but that seems to be only when in the mood.

I want to clarify that when I say aggressive, I mean in how he preens. He doesn't chase down and attack my hands or anything just is very vicious in how he does is a lot of the time. And some days are better than others, I think he knows I typed this cause all this morning he's been an angel.

[linda040899]

OK. That helps. He just enjoys "grooming" your fingers, not realizing he's hurting you. What you are going to have to do is find a way to let him know that gentle preening/grooming is OK but overpreening (only way I can think of to describe it) isn't pleasant for you. However you do it, it has to be non-aggressive or you will simply get retaliation from Fia.

[Iosevus]

Usually I just try and separate hands and Fia when it gets a bit rough. Sometimes when I'm typing, I just gently prod him away with a finger to the chest. He usually chirps and stares at me in admonishment for a moment, then tries again.

[linda040899]

Is the worst of the hard nibbling when your fingers are in motion? If I'm trying to type on my keyboard and there's a bird on my hand, the bird seems to play rough because of the movement. Can't properly groom a moving object!!!!! :happy:

[Iosevus]

Only when I try and pull away, then he latches on to the point that I can pick him up just from him holding on, but really it's about the same even in my hands are still. The back of my hand is pretty smooth, but there are times he'll still try and dig in on the back of my hand and eat my flesh.

I think this is just the start of a b-rated horror movie, where I accidentally breed a race of flesh eating lovebirds that fly around like air-piranha eating teens at summer camp.