Integrating 1 wild lovebird with 2 tame lovebirds?

[neal_]

Hi,

We have hand reared two peach faced lovebirds that are about 1 year old, their gender is unknown, but we suspect both males. They are mostly tame, with unclipped wings, but do bite sometimes and don't like our hands touching them. They are caged together and quite happy and we love them so much.

We are wanting to take in a wild peach faced lovebird from a pet store(not sure age or gender), as we think we can give it a better life. We are just wondering what the implications are with our other two lovebirds? We will cage them separately in the same room.

The aim is try and tame the wild one, but we are nervous our two tame birds will fly to its cage and cause problems.

Any advice would be much appreciated?

Best,
Neal

[linda040899]

Hi and welcome to Lovebirds Plus Community!

When bringing home a new lovebird, or any new bird for that matter, make sure you quarantine the new bird for a minimum of 30 days, although 60 days would be better. Since the new lovebird is coming from a pet shop, you have no idea what it has been exposed to and you need to protect the two lovebirds that already live with you. No introductions until after quarantine is finished. During the quarantine period, I would probably make a vet appointment with an avian vet to get baseline readings for this bird. If nothing else, you will know the status of its health at the time it came to live with you.

Initially, introductions should be made in side by side cages. Let them get to know each other with cage bar separations so that no one gets hurt. If, indeed, you have 2 males, and the new bird is also a male, you should not have many behavior issues since males are generally happy campers and hang out well together. However, if the new one is a female, it could change the dynamics immensely! You may want to get the new one DNA sexed so you know what gender you have.

Kudos to you for wanting to give this lovebird a better life. Love, kindness, patience and time is what is needed to build a trust relationship with it.

[neal_]

Thanks Linda,

and thanks for the welcome. Super happy we found this forum.

We now have the "wild" lovie at home. We are getting a health check up and DNA sexing on Thursday. The petshop owner, loaned the bird to us to get all this done, but we will take the bird no matter the results. We spoke more to the petshop owner and he suspects its a female and is close to a year old, which is similar to the age of our birds. It actually looks a bit smaller than our other two, which we are also getting sexed next week. He also said that the lovie was actually hand reared but the previous owner neglected it and returned it just before our covid lockdown.

Are there any implications if we have two females and the new one is male?

Then if we have two males and this is a female, how do we treat this and prevent a big change in the dynamics, if at all possible?

So far the new lovie is settling quite nicely, and they are all talking to each other through the separate rooms. They all seem happy so far.

New lovie is also only eating seeds, so we will need to try change her/his diet soon, but do not want to cause any more stress so will probably try in a few days when more settled...

[linda040899]

Good deal on the new lovebird! One thing I've found is that it's easier to have lovebirds if you know gender. While I've had trios get along, it's hard to predict exactly how the dynamics will change with this addition. 3 males would most likely not be a problem, but other combinations might not work out quite so well. For now, observe the 30 day quarantine, even after the check up. There is at least one illness that I can think of that has a 45 day incubation period and would not show on any testing if testing is done too early.

In the wild, lovebirds are seed and veggie eaters. Since they are native to Africa, African species require a diet higher in fat than parrots from other locations around the globe. Lovebirds need sunflower seed, strictly for the oil. Pellets are low in fat so an all pelleted diet for lovebirds would not be healthy in the long run. I use Lafebers Nutriberries and Avi-cakes and mine do well. If you change diet, do it slowly, as new food may not be seen as edible and it will either be discarded or just not eaten.

[Maxie]

Hi there!

I just adopted a third lovie recently. I have two males that are best buddies. Maximus is seven and Gabriel is two. I adopted Gabe two years ago and it was love at first chirp for both of them. I had Gabe tested for a couple of diseases and also Dna’d for sex. Regardless, I still quarantined him for a month before any physical contact with Max. Both Max and Gabe were NOT TAME when I brought them home. It didn’t take too long to earn their trust.

Sept 4th I adopted Raphael. I had no plans on bringing home a third but I saw him on a shelters website and I felt so sorry for him. So, I brought him home. I can’t express how important it is to quarantine a new bird. I’ve quarantined Gabe since I brought him home. It’s just recently that I brought him downstairs but still not close to the other two.

When I brought him home, I noticed immediately that he was struggling with his breathing. Tail bobbing and open mouth breathing. Some clicking and a little bit of a palpitation in one of his “sinuses “ just below his eye. The shelter hadn’t seen this. My vet prescribed antibiotics and he has been on them for almost four weeks now. He’s getting better and will be off the meds soon.

I’m not sure if he’s a male but my gut says that he is...lol. I’m going to take the introductions slow as I did with Gabe and Max.

If you have Instagram, you can follow my flow at the_lovie_gang.

[linda040899]

I can never stress too much just how important 30 day quarantine is when you add a new member to a flock. It's for the safety of the birds that already live with you. I've only had one that quarantine and vet check where a problem was not detected.

[Maxie]

I agree. As excited and anxious as we are to introduce them to our other birds, it’s not worth the risk.

[linda040899]

I agree. As excited and anxious as we are to introduce them to our other birds, it’s not worth the risk.

Absolutely! I remember someone from Craig's List was looking for 2 lovebirds to pair with 2 she had just gotten. I said I was open to selling 2 but I wanted her to test her 2 for PBFD, even though they didn't appear to be sick. Well, the tests came back positive so there was no sale. Mine were healthy and I wasn't putting them in a situation that was basically a death sentence.

[neal_]

Thank you very one for the comments.

So just to update everyone...

The new 'wild' lovie is still being quarantined, we took her to vet and they ran a whole bunch of tests, all was fine but we are still waiting for the PBFD test result. We also got her sexed and she is a female. She is doing really well, almost a completely different bird to when we picked her up. So much more comfortable and happy with us.

We also got our other two lovies sexed and they are both male. So we might be in a pickle now...

Going to take introductions very very slow, after the quarantine in about 2 or 3 more weeks.

We are still struggling with the diet of the new lovie, she will only eat spray millet and sunflower seeds, but we are trying to grind the seeds and some pellets together. its not going too smooth but we will persist:)

[linda040899]

I'm very glad that you took your new lovebird to your vet to have her checked out. Many people don't think this is necessary, only to find out later that the bird was sick and it created problems for the rest of the flock. Now you know she is a she and you have a baseline for her health which might prove helpful later.

I usually feed what's called Cockatiel mix seed. It's a mixture of seed and sunflower seed. I also feed veggies like shredded carrot, kale, string beans,corn, collard greens, Nutriberries and Avi-Cakes. Nutriberries contain pellets so I don't add any additional pellets. Millet does have some nutritional value but not a whole lot. Because lovebirds are native to Africa, sunflower seed is important because African species need more fat in their diets than parrots from other places around the globe.

Having 2 males and 1 female is better than having it the other way around. You might find that she picks one of them but they can all live together peacefully. Male lovebirds are generally not aggressive when housed together. In fact, I have this combination in one of my flight cages as I type this. The only problem with having male/female is the desire to reproduce..... :)

[neal_]

Hi all:)

Update!

So our new lovie (Sufi) is doing well, she is quiet feisty, with me in particular, but she is much calmer with my partner, which is absolutely fine. I just need to work a bit harder and spend more time with her. She is not completely tame though, still very alert to sounds and movement, but has improved so much since we go her. Not a fan of our hands, but she will jump on our arms and peacefully sit on our shoulders and then sometimes explore.

Her diet is good, we got her onto pellets a while ago and we regularly give he seeds and fresh vegetables. Very happy about that.

In terms of integrating her with our 2 hand reared brothers we have been very slow and patient, we have left the cages together for a while now, and they do not seem to be too bothered by each other. One of the boys (Pingala, the submissive brother) does sometimes pluck up his feathers when she is close by, he use to go for her through the cage but that seems to be getting less and less. The other boy (Ida, the dominant brother) is not really phased by her presence and is more curious and calm.

We have often let the two boys out in the same room while she is in her cage and they do not seem to be bothered by her they just fly around and cause their normal chaos. Initially when Pingala use to land on her cage he would try bite her but that doesn't seem to happen anymore.

We just want to know if it would be completely daft of us to think that they could all get along and essentially end up in one big cage? we have been keen to let all three of them out in a room to interact with each other (bearing in mind Sufi's wings are clipped and the boys can fly) - we obviously don't want any of them to get hurt. I've read up and it seems the next option would be to get Sufi her own mate, but if there is a chance they could get on, do you believe it would be ok to try? and if yes, what precautions must we take? What happens if they do start fighting?

[linda040899]

We just want to know if it would be completely daft of us to think that they could all get along and essentially end up in one big cage? we have been keen to let all three of them out in a room to interact with each other (bearing in mind Sufi's wings are clipped and the boys can fly) - we obviously don't want any of them to get hurt. I've read up and it seems the next option would be to get Sufi her own mate, but if there is a chance they could get on, do you believe it would be ok to try? and if yes, what precautions must we take? What happens if they do start fighting?
How well they might all get along is actually up them. I've had trios together that got along just fine. The ones that got along the best were 2 males and 1 female, although the female had her favorite of the 2 males. This will be sorted out by trying. If that fails, you will be looking for an older male for Sufi, as most females don't get along with each other. In a large room, they will all have space so there's less chance of conflict.....for the most part.

Many parrots don't like human hands but will sit/land on arms and shoulders. Many times, a perch can serve as a surrogate "hand".......

[neal_]

Any idea how we actually integrate them all as Sufi cannot fly yet? Do we put Sufi on a perch or some sort of surface and just let the boys fly to her? Can we use food(plenty of it) to help and possibly distract them? What do we do as parents if things go south?

[linda040899]

I take it that Sufi's wings have been clipped way too short...... What you can do is get a play stand, put her on it and let them come to her. When outside the cages, I would have several food/water dishes so each bird has access to one of each and none can dominate all of them. With the boys being flighted, they can leave if Sufi gets aggressive. If it absolutely does not work out at all, you go to plan B. Sufi needs her own companion.

[neal_]

Hi again:)

So we have introduced the lovies quite a few time now, maybe 10 times gradually over a few weeks, as sort of discussed but it doesn't seem all that clear whether they will get along or not yet. They would more often than not eat out of the same food bowl with little fuss, maybe a few growls but nothing dramatic, and once the boys were done eating they would take off on their adventure, uninterested and leave her on the play stand/area. It does look like she wants to join them but she cant fly yet. Sometimes they would come back and there would be maybe a small fight and either the boys would fly away again or we would intervene and distract the boys or take her into another room. One boy (Pingala) in particular seems to go for Sufi more aggressively.

We have also tried having Sufi on our shoulders and letting the boys fly to her there. Pingala again comes in more aggressively and we normally have to intervene here. It does seem like there is more aggression shown towards Sufi when she is on us. Which is understandable.

The last introduction we had Sufi and Ida were on a chair together and they went for each a bit before Sufi started feeding Ida. Which was strangely pleasant.

I am just wanting to know, how will we know if they get along or not? And must we continue with our approach? Is there anything in our approach we can change? Or should we move on to plan B?

I want to continue our approach, or improve it, and at least wait for her to fully fly before making a decision, but I worry the situation will be less controllable if she can fly.

Just want to know your if you have any thoughts or ideas.

[linda040899]

When you see one parrot feeding another, this is a good sign. Parrots will feed those they like/care about. With Sufi being non-flighted, it puts her at a disadvantage, as she can't go with them. I think I would continue introductions as you have been and just wait. You may find they all get along and you will have a happy trio. Or you may find that Sufi picks one of the two as her companion and you will have an extra lovebird. I have several trios that get along great so you never know. When I have multiple birds and they are out and about, I usually have at least 2 food dishes so all have access to more than one choice should they decide not to share well. :)