Sudden Aggression

[Miki]

I got 2 baby lovebirds last year and hand fed them. Sadly one of them passed away in November when he was only 5 months old. My remaining lovebird which is now turning 7 months old is white and his name is Lilo. He was very lonely and wouldn't stop screaming unless i took him out of his cage. I thought it would be a good idea to get him a friend since Lilo and Stitch (the blue one that passed) basically grew up together.

I bought a 1 month old baby named Polo, he/she is green/yellow/orange .. my mother also bought a yellow and orange baby named Boo, he is almost 3 months old. Polo and Boo were together for a week at the petshop where i got them so they're already inseparable.

I introduced Polo and Boo to Lilo and he wasn't very pleased. He keeps ons biting and attacking them , especially the baby. He also keeps biting me whenever I try to take him out of the cage which he never did before. I'm usually the only one that can handle him. Whenever anybody else tries to hold them then he will fly Away . He would usually climb on my hand where as now he'll just fly away whenever I get close to him and if he's not flying away then he will bite me.

I never thought they could bite that hard that I would actually start bleeding. I just really want to know what i can do to stop the sudden aggressive behaviour that he has developed since we got the new babies. I don't want to get rid of the babies, because I've already got attached and I also don't want to get rid of Lilo, because he was my first bird.

[linda040899]

Sorry to hear that you lost one of your original lovebirds. :( Lovebirds are very social birds and can be devastated when a companion is no longer in their lives. Another thing you have going on is that Lilo is now becoming sexually mature. Females are usually the more aggressive of the 2 genders, so I'm guessing if you were to DNA sex Lilo, you would probably find you have a female.

Usually introducing younger lovebirds to more mature ones can be risky. Males will accept younger hens more readily than females will accept younger males. With lovebirds, the likelihood of 2 hens getting along is maybe 20%. I would hold off any further introductions for at least 6 months and then put the 2 younger ones in a cage next to Lilo's. If they truly don't get along, at least there's the safety of cage bars between them.

Since Lilo is cage aggressive now, try perch training for the safety of your fingers/hands. Perches are generally seen as less threatening than human hands. Whenever I want one of my birds to move to a perch that I'm holding, I tell the bird "Step up." I have a Military Macaw who will tell me "Step up" whenever I go to take him out of his cage!

[Miki]

Thanks so much. I got Lilo and Stitch surgically sexed by an avian vet last year October (A month before Stitch passed away) and he told me that both of them were males which made sense since they fought a lot and kept trying to mate with each other.

At first i didn't know that was mating behavior until i read online and watched videos. They would both regurgitate and feed each other and then sort of take turns to get on top and flap their wings.

I see that i haven't mentioned that i don't know the sex of the 2 new birds (Polo and Boo) but i will probably have them DNA sexed since I've read that surgical sexing might be dangerous and could cause lovebirds to get sick or even die.

As i said, that's only what I've read.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. It's much appreciated 😌

[linda040899]

DNA sexing the new birds is what I would do. That way, you know what you have. If you guess, you have a 50% chance of being right....... :)

I use feather sexing when I do a test. Plucking 5-6 chest feathers is not painful, where short clipping a nail is painful for several days. With feather sexing, you don't run the risk of having a contaminated sample, which will cause the result to be incorrect. Surgical sexing is dangerous for small birds mainly because they are so small. It's invasive and you definitely run the risk of infection.

[Miki]

Thank you i will keep that in mind. I will find out where jn my area i can get them DNA Sexed and then take it from there. Thanks so much for al the advice you gave me and i will start with the perch training with Lilo. You've really helped me🙂