funniest story...

[lilwonder512]

hello everyone!
i wanted to share this amusing anecdote that happened to me a few weeks ago. my office bought two lovebirds several months ago (to keep as office pets.. don't ask :roll:) and i bring them home on the weekends. one weekend i placed the cage by my window to get some fresh air and to chirp to the outside birds. i was outside of my house and was hearing a chirp that was very similar to that of my lovies - we have a bird feeder in our backyard that often attracts various birds, but i knew that this chirp was distinct. i look up and i see a bright green bird flying right up to my house, in particularly the window that my birds were sitting in. i go to the window that my lovies are sitting by and open it, and a few minutes later, in flies this bird that i see. i catch it and put it in a cage, and realize that it's a green peach-faced (i think) lovebird! this bird just flew right into my home. it must have escaped from its previous owner! how unbelievable is that? :happy: and the bird was perfectly healthy (thank goodness).

i really enjoy having my own bird at home now, but ive been bringing him/her (i dont know the sex!) to work so its not alone in my house all day. i can tell how excited all the birds get when i reunite them, but im wondering if i should cage all three together? is it mean to put the cages by each other during the workday and weekends? is my single bird going to be lonely when i bring him/her home at nite? any advice? i dont want a depressed lovie :(

[graushill]

Hi!

It must be really neat to have a bird fly in directly to your home. I think Barb (one of the boards administrators) also got her first lovie (Gracie) in a similar way :).

As for your questions, I'm having a bit of a problem because to introduce a new bird to an existing flock, the first step is usually to quarantine the new birdie for between 30 to 90 days to ensure that the new bird is not carrying any diseases that could be transmitted to the entire flock. Birds are really good at hiding illnesses so this is a good policy and just a way to prevent a lot of heartache further on. In your case, I'm not really sure how that would apply so I'll leave that part to the experts. I'm sure they'll come with good suggestions. I would probably still try to quarantine him for at least a month, and maybe book a vet appointment to have him checked up. I'm not really sure if you already did this from your post, so I'm sorry if you already have done this :).

As for the question of caging them together, I wouldn't do it immediately. Lovies are by nature extremely territorial and newcomers are usually not welcome into an existing group. 3 is a particularly difficult number, since two can gang up on the remaining one, and even kill him. To avoid this you cold go through an introduction phase in which the birds are caged in side by side cages (close but not too close, since you don't want them to be able to get to each other through the bars) and then have supervised playtimes out where you're present to see how they get along, and to intervene if need be. Then you do need a cage that is big enough for three lovies and that would be a relatively large cage, since they do need space to get away from each other and spots each of them can claim as their own, and I would even think that the best thing would be to have the two lovies come to the new birdie's cage rather than the other way around, just to balance things out a bit in favour of the newcomer.

Anyway, I wish you a lot of luck with this. I did have three lovies for a while ( I have six now) and while they got along okay for the most part, I never did manage to cage them together. It was just too difficult on my single lovie. However, I have read about people who have done this sucessfully so I wish you the same sucess. A question: are all the lovies peachies? To have different species can complicate things a bit....

Gloria

[Janie]

:D.....that is an amazing story!!!!! What a lucky bird, to have found you! Did you try to find his owner? A few folks here have found their lovies in a similar way and did keep them when the original owner could not be found. I remember your first post about the office birds and wondered how that was working out. Glad to hear that it's going well.

Most of the time 3 is not a good number in the same cage. I do have three and two are bonded brothers, caged together, and Oliver is my "single" male peachie who has his own cage. They are in a bird room and spend 6 to 10 hours a day out of their cages and together. I supervised them like a hawk for the first 6 months to be sure that one would not get picked on by the other two and in my case, it's all worked out very well but I never expected it to....just got lucky. I would not cage Oliver with either one of them even though they do go in and out of both cages together but the doors are open so they are not locked in. I often find one of the two brothers snuggled up to Oliver. They've tried to feed him and to do the swishy-swishy with him but he's a little perplexed by all of that! :lol

Do you ever have all three out together and if so, how do they get along? I think having cages close to each other is fine and does give your single bird company during the day and he is probably perfectly happy with this set up. Interacting with them during the day and going home with you at night. :D Many single birds are left alone during the day while their parents are gone to work and they do just fine so I'm sure your bird is more than fine, getting to live in your home but also getting to socialize with these birds (even though not in the same cage) during the day.

Again, three is usually not a good number in a single cage and one might get picked on or even killed so be sure to observe them closely if you have all three out of their cages.

[butterfly1061]

Well how cool it that!! :cool:

I'm glad to hear Jay & Vivi are doing well. Are they tame now? I agree with the above advice about caging 3 lovies. I have 4 and each has his/her own cage. They play very well together, but each loves his/her own space. Sometimes I can put two together for playtime, but only if I'm home just in case somebirdy gets miffed at the other. They are territorial about certain toys, cozies & perches. Got any pictures? We love pictures :)

[shylevon]

I wouldn't house three lovebirds in the same cage unless you have an aviary, especially if any of the birds are hens. They may gang up on the newcomer and possibly kill it. Birds that are less than one year in age are typically OK in one cage, but after they get older and are of breeding age, they become very territorial and aggressive. My first flock consisted of four birds that had been together since hatching, in the same cage, and they were all the very best of friends. One day, they just all turned on each other. Hearts were broken and friendships died. They are OK together out of the cage, and now they all live in an aviary, so they are fine together, but a small cage with three birds usually doesn't work.

I would continue to keep the cages close together, and they can become 'safe' friends through the bars.

Did you take your newcomer to the vet for a 'Well Bird' checkup? He may be carrying something you don't know about, especially after his days in the 'wild'. I wouldn't want your office birds to catch anything that might cause them illness.

[Mummieeva]

Also have you put up posters. Someone could of lost that bird and be very sad. If I missed that part in the post please tell me. But if my babies got out I would hope someone would try and help me find them.


Steph

[mandy]

Wow! How I wish a lovie will fly into my home as well!