Breeding an Option?

[EAI]

Okay, I slept a little bit and I'm sorry for my previous post, that was an outburst (I never had one for 2 years) because I was extremely tired and pretty emotional as you could tell..and I realized that a bird doesn't need to have papers to be an emotional companion..

Anyways, back to the Lovebird forum.

Although I still am planning on a Senegal I found this offer on Craigslist: Two 2 year old mated lovebirds. He claims they are a mated pair but I have to double check to see if he knows they are the opposite gender.
The last clutch he had were infertile, which makes me think of bad nutrition and illness. Which brings up if they look healthy or not, even with a vet visit I don't want to jeopardize my birds with an airborne illness.
And i'm wondering if these two mutations are successfully able to breed and what kind of mutations would they make if they did.

Im trying to make a decision by today, because I really like the thought of raising Lovebirds, they'd be more on the parent raise until I see that they are weaned or I need to take immediate action. And we have quite a lot of animals but theres an extra room at the end of the house that I'd have them breed in. However, there's other options as to getting lovebirds like just buying one from a breeder since the overall cost will probably be cheaper.
I thought about breeding last year and read numerous articles about it I'm reading again right now.

But what's outrageous is that the pair will be 60 and the cage and nest box would be 40. And the cage is only 24x16x16, but I want to see if he can lower the price since they were infertile.

So far I'll be asking him if they were tested for any diseases when he got them, which bird is the male and female, what have they been eating, and more when I think of it (might need help here too).

 

[EAI]

I'm hoping that the female was sleeping at the time

 

[Sterling1113]

I don't know anything about lovebirds- but it doesn't sound like a good idea to me (these two) Look at her toe nails.. I feel like it's been a while since they've seen a vet, or she might have an illness causing nails to over grow very quickly.

You'll find the right companion when the time comes. Don't rush into something you're not sure about.

 

[Phlox]

Please, stop. You clearly aren't ready for another bird of any kind.

 

[RavensGryf]

I'm quite surprised to see this thread after your last thread that we answered earlier today.

Since you are asking our advice, the loud and clear answer is NO!!!
From what you've shared with us, you are not only a minor living under your parents rules, which that in itself creates a potentially bad situation for your animals, but you aren't either emotionally or financially stable enough to take on yet MORE responsibility. To be quite honest, it would be absolutely ridiculous to take on this pair of parrots right now, let alone try to learn about breeding. No, please!!

 

[SilverSage]

This does not sound like a wise choice right now for several reasons.

1. You are going through a hard time right now, and the last thing you need is to add a bird to the mix.
2. You have 7 dogs in the house, right? 2 adults and 5 puppies? It also sounds like these dogs have behavioral problems. Even if the birds do breed, it is a bad environment to bring baby birds up in.
3. You do not know about breeding, or you wouldnt be asking these questions. You have dozens if not hundreds of hours of research ahead of you before you are ready for this.
4. You live with your mom, you do not have a job to pay for their vet care, food, etc. Breeding birds is not like having pet birds where you are more or less good as long as they get an annual check up - breeding birds costs a LOT of money when done right!
5. You can barely GIVE AWAY parent raised lovebirds on this island, and hand raised ones are a dime a dozen from reputable hand raisers and pet stores. This is a bird that is overbred and inbred on Oahu, it is not responsible to produce more. Seriously. There are people on craigslist giving them away free, sometimes by the hundreds.
6. The yellow one looks like a lutino peachfaced love bird, but the other I have not been able to find a picture matching on the internet, leading me to believe he is a hybrid of some sort. I am no lovebird expert, but it appears to be a "mutt" so to say, and should not be bred.
7. Even if he is not mutt, you dont know what he is, demonstrating that you have not done enough research to take this on.
8. You want to bring a Sennie home sometime this year, but you dont have a job - you are adding birds without adding income, because again, you can barely give parent raised love birds away.
9. You are in high school still. Aside from the obvious concern about having time for these birds, you CANNOT hand feed while in school. This means you will not be able to hand feed (and thus save) any birds that need it for survival.

There are more reasons, but you asked if this was an option, and I do not think it is a good choice right now. I know the temptation to take more and more birds, believe me I do! But you have to know your limit, and think more about the good of the birds than yourself. In this case though, it is also for your own good that I advise against it.

 

[MikeyTN]

The other one is a Orange Faced Lovebird! It was the first color of Lovebirds I've raised. They can be sexed easily once reaching maturity and have had eggs. But I would NOT suggest breeding for anyone cause it is very time consuming and a lot of work. You MUST know what your doing in order to raise them properly cause some times the parents don't care for their chicks properly in which you must resort to hand feeding which is a BIG task and one wrong move you can easily kill the chicks. So if you haven't done it before, don't!!!

 

[Peepers]

I have to agree. What will you do with the babies? Plus they do not look like they are in good shape. I bred teils but I gave the three babies to my mom and retired the breeding pair. Its a lot of work, up keep, cleaning, research, no I do not believe you are ready, sorry.