waking up early

[bubble]

hi everyone, i am new here and glad to have found this site. i have a total of 12 lovebirds, my sister bought me 2 lovies in 2003 christmas and they turned out to be one male and one female. guess you know how the story goes and how i end up with 12 lovies. i handfed most of the babies and they are very attached to me, when i walk into their room they instantly attached to any part of my body like magnets :lol. there is one one bird that is "untouchable" since he's a baby, he would stand facing the corner of the brooder not even looking at me. once he could fly i can't even touch him since, he quickly attached to one of his sisters which is from a different clutch.
lately, he's been waking up at 11pm (their bedtime is 6pm) and would stand on top of one of the cages for the whole night. my 12 lovies have their own room (used to be my library) and they are never caged, i bought 4 large cages for them but the doors are never closed, they can go in and out as they wish. each of them would have a happy hut to sleep in and i hang them on a curtain rod and use some shortened curtains as dividers so they don't see each other. they have paired up so i have a total of 6 pairs. it's very unusual for them to come out after 6pm since the lights are out even for the dimmer. for some reason he flew out in the middle of the night, as he's "untouchable" i can't even put him back inside the happy hut, he would stand outside for the whole nite and waking everybody at around 5:30 am in the morning.
i am wondering why he's don't that...need advise :cry:
by the way, his name is fluffy. let me give you the names of my birds: bubble, jello, sylvester, tweety, pudding, jellybean, jaws, baby, fluffy, honey, bunny and fish. i would try to post some pictures of them.
many thanks.

mimi

[BarbieH]

Hi Mimi, welcome;

I think you may need to rethink your lovebird housing situation. If your offspring have paired up with each other, there is nothing to stop the male-female pairs from mating and laying more eggs, which turns into more lovies -- probably a lot more than you would want, or be able to sell or give away.

You won't be able to stop them from mating and laying eggs, but there are other risks involved with this situation. Lovebirds, hens in particular, can get very territorial about each others' nests. They have been known to attack and even kill each other if left to their own devices, as some of our members have experienced with their own flocks. You may think they're getting along well, and an attack can happen when you least expect it.

The happy huts aren't helping the situation. Lovebird hens look at them as if they are nestboxes, and this keeps them in a nesty, territorial frame of mind.

Ask yourself, how many birds do you want to wind up with? Are you prepared to deal with vet bills related to emergencies?

It would easily be less expensive to get a couple more cages, so that you have one for each pair, and leave those cage doors shut unless you can personally supervise the birds. Our moderator Laura from Hawaii is very committed to making sure her birds all get to visit with her every day ... even the ones that don't especially like it. :)

Why is that one getting up so early? I'm not sure, but it could be that getting him and his partner in their own cage, and no happy hut, breaks this habit of his.

Best wishes,

[Mandolin]

I could be very wrong since i have little experience in this area, but isn't having brothers and sisters paired together with the possibility of mating a bad thing. Are love birds as effected by inbreeding as other animals?
I would also suggest getting a few large cages. The thought of having one large room filled with birds flying around on their own makes me personally think of scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". I applaud you for being able to keep 11 of you 12 tame and happy :omg: . I honestly don't think i would be able to do that. I (and i am sure many others) can't wait to see pictures of your flock.

[Mummieeva]

welcome to the board.I agree with Barb on the fact about Happy huts and hens wanting to nest. I would offer them only at night and in their cages. Having 12 lovies and tame is tons of work. Brother and sister pairs can breed and will if given chance. But the babies could and most likely will have health riskes. Unless your sure of sexes or comited to alot of adling/boiling eggs I would find out their genders(i know a bit of money for 12 birds) and only allow the pairs that are both boys to stay together. I would not allow birds out of cage at night. To many risks if they get scared and try to fly off. My birds are allowed out of cage time alot but always in cage at night time.


Steph

[bubble]

hi, thanks for the replies. i only offer them the happy huts at night and have all of them removed first thing in the morning. yes, the brothers and sisters do mate and produced eggs and i boiled all of them :cry:
they seem to be very happy together and of course they fight a lot too. i remember a few times i separated some of them to another room, they would screaming for each other all day or stay very very quiet until they see each other together again. in terms of vet bills and their needs, they have been groomed and check by the vet when needed (it's a lot of money but i think it's worth it), i only want them to have a happy and healthy life. i do spend a lot of time with them, at least 2 hours a day.
gotta go, time for bed and some snack (not me, my lovies). ttyl.
thanks.

mimi

[Mandolin]

Wow Mimi, i am very impressed :cool: . I can imagine having 12 birds (10 of which are brothers and sisters) i would think that it would be a lot like having 12 2 year olds. The only advantage being you can keep them in one room. I hope to see lots of pictures soon :D .

[graushill]

Hi Mimi,

I was thinking about your dilemma with your James Dean rebel lovie :) . He sounds quite the strong character. I was wondering, maybe a way to make your lovies, but specially him, wake up later in the mornings could be to put them to bed a bit later in the evenings? I read that you put them to bed at 6 PM, which sounds a tad early to me. I have an early riser too, but thankfully he's a quiet one, and while I do hear him rustling around and stretching and preening at the crack of dawn, he doesn't vocalise until he hears me moving, several hours later I might add >o. Because of him we have delayed my birdies bed time to 9.30 PM, the time my husband goes to bed. We cover their cages, mostly because we have found out that that's the best way to make their schedule fit more with ours, as they sleep in our bedroom. With my early riser it's particularly important to make the inside of the cage as dark as possible, because if it's light all around he starts getting impatient, and in summer that would mean rising to Nemo's good morning what a beautiful day singing at 4 Am :omg:. So his cage gets covered with two dark colored blankets. So far, it has helped in keeping him quiet until I get up at about 7.30 Am on weekdays and 8-9 on weekends.

Maybe any of these ideas could help? Anyway, good luck with Fluffy. May he be less broody and more sunshiny soon :).

Gloria

[Jezz]

Graushill is exactly right!
You need to put the bird to bed a bit later, birds require 10 hours sleep so with the sleeping arrangement you have, they will be getting up early. Most birds wake up at the crack of dawn.
All my breeding birds outside, wake at aound 4:30am in Summer and 6am in Winter.
Pet birds inside get covers on their cage and get put to bed at around 9pm. I usually have some lights out before then but they can still see and hear the TV going. They usually wake around 6am or 7am, they would probably sleep longer but they hear the birds outside and start calling back to them

[LauraO]

Mimi: Welcome to the board. I'm glad you found us:D . You sound like you have a great flock getting great care:D . I also have a bird room but I have 17 to 19 lovies who live in it and many of them are related. They are out of their cages most of the day but I put them in bed in their cages and bring them out in the morning. Cages are a necessity for me cause some of my lovies fight over a few spaces in the room and their would be lots of bloodshed if left to their own devices.

Anyway, I'm wondering how Fluffy is getting along with his mate? Maybe the other lovie is kicking him out of the hut or he just wants to sleep outside of the hut. I offer huts in my cages at night and most of the male lovies only sleep in them part time or not at all. So maybe there isn't anything wrong other than he doesn't want to sleep in the hut. You could always try and add another hut next to his mate's or a lot of our lovies love sleeping or playing in towels. You could drape one over the cage and he can crawl in if he likes.....The early chirping could be a result of him not sleeping in the tent. He could be seeing the sun coming up or hearing the birds outside, which didn't happen when he was in the hut.

I don't cover my birds as they have their own room. I put them in their cages between 6 and 6:30pm in the winter and later in the summer. They get up just before dawn. I'm okay with this as it;s more natural. Of course, I do keep some up most days to hang out with them.

[Asue]

I didn't really notice anyone say anything about the inbreeding being bad....
Anyway, some breeders ( cats, dogs, fish and other animals too...) call it "line-breeding". Mom to son, Dad to daughter... this is to magnify color traits, or other physical traits desired.

I do not recommend anyone doing this unless they are well informed of the possible consequences. Because line-breeding also magnifies bad traits, it could also mean sickly babies.

[bubble]

hi asue, they do mate with their brothers and sisters but i boiled all their eggs. i don't recommend inbreeding as well.

mimi