Pair of Lovebirds

[BurtyNBetty]

Hi All,

Me and my Mrs bought a pair of lovebirds just after Christmas. They were around 20 weeks old and we are not sure on the sex as we bought them from our local large pet shop where it said sex could not be guaranteed but they could only be sold as a pair.

We would love to be able to train our birds to handle if possible so have a few questions!

•Firstly with them being a pair will it be possible to train them?

•Should we do a DNA test to find out the sex?

•What are the best methods of attempting to train them with there being two of them?

We have let them out a couple of times to have a fly in the house, which they seem to love but getting them back in the cage is a bit of a struggle as we have to catch them!
•Would you advise in doing this or say it’s worth leaving until we have trained them because catching them could ruin their trust towards us? Or should one of our first goals be to try and train them to go back into their cage on their own, if so what’s the best way to go about this please?

• Does anybody have any success stories with pairs and what they tried first?


Here's a picture of our babies

 

[clark_conure]

FIRST find a certified avian vet. They will check both birds out and get you a blood sample for DNA testing. Then DNA testing is like 12 bucks online, I'm doing it myself right now.

Yes you can train them! They are not known as a talking species, that would be more difficult thought they do mimic sometimes, but as a pair......

The first goal is always "step up" making the bird come to you and getting on your hand willingly. Even better excitedly. Leave them in the cage with door open, put hand near cage entrence(don't enter cage) and talk about rndom stuff, celebrity gossip whatever, but interject often come on, step up... In short while they will figure it out. I'll stop here cause EllenD is probably composing a book on what you should do lol.

Have fun....

 

[BurtyNBetty]

Thanks for your reply!

We are really pleased to hear that they can be trained


With the step up thing, we have quite a big cage for them and the side door is really big so I'm pretty certain that as soon as we go to open it they will fly out and into the corner of the room up high.

Would you maybe block the door so they cannot get out and perhaps sit by it half blocking but with our hand near it to encourage them to come to us?

We do have a smaller travel cage we could move them to if that would be easier too i guess.


We are super excited to start trying all these things and want to make a good effort each night

 

[clark_conure]

yeah be the wall, the barrier.....they have to acknowledge you to get out.... be the bottom of the cage door....

The important thing is just getting used to your presence, your voice, your smell. Your calmness, always be calm until your bonded then you can freak out and play wild games. Once they figure out you love them, the will reciprocate. How long that takes...well what you put into it is what you get out....

OH and treats!!! Fresh fruit, apples oranges etc., papya treats, anything that they seam to love, don't be afraid to hold some or just rest that on your arm as you watch netflix or read a book or whatever you like to do.

 

[BurtyNBetty]

Thanks mate that's awesome!

If they manage to get out the cage while we try this and we HAVE to catch them again to make them go back in, would this ruin all of the hard work before hand trying to earn their trust?

 

[clark_conure]

It depends on the interaction...it might be more beneficial to interact outside the cage. In the beginning you need to kind of, sort of, be a mind reader to your birds and interpret body language...later on it's way easier because you know all the cues and they get better at expressing themselves.

Either way some lovebird expert will come on and tell you all you need to know from food and interacting and all that. At most 24 hours this website has thousands of members I just happen to be on right now and the advice I'm giving is mostly generic, I'm not an expert in lovebirds and really nor conures.... I'd say I'm pretty good to excellent with conures though. Maybe triple really good. But the advice I'm giving is mostly boilerplate...it's the same for all species. Once one of the lovebird guys/girls gets on you will have a wealth of information.

 

[clark_conure]

also...those birds are adorable!!!! never feel like your posting to many pictures!!!!!!!

Are they dissimilar enough you can tell them apart seems hard from the photo. What are their names....inquiring minds will want to know....or are you waiting for the DNA test.

 

[BurtyNBetty]

Thanks Clark, we called them Burty and Betty. One has a red/pinkish ring on its ankle and the other a blue so we decided we would treat one as a boy and the other a girl

If you look at the below picture you can see one is a lighter more lime green, thats Burty and the darker green is Betty!

 

[BurtyNBetty]

Also check out this slow motion video I got of Betty flying the other day

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n54HSOc6oE"]Burty and betty - YouTube[/ame]

 

[clark_conure]

lol nice effect! from this pic I can see a little contrast in tail feathers and around the neck too....

 

[Aratingettar]

For some reason I can't see the photos.
Lovies do have some sexual dimorphism -- the male's head is longer, with flattened top of the head; while female's head is generally more round and smaller.
You can also see how they're perching: male will keep feets closer, while the female stands "wide".
Taming the pair will probably be harder than "solo" bird, as they don't need that much of human-to-bird interaction. But the general rule of successfull bond is to build trust. This takes loooooong time, so be patient and you will be rewarded.

 

[BurtyNBetty]

That's really interesting! Although I can't see any of those differences at the moment on ours maybe they are still too young?

Their tail feathers do differ though ones are longer and more compact and the others spread out more when sat still and look a bit more messy

 

[Betrisher]

G'day BurtyNBetty! What a gorgeous pair of Lovies! Congratulations and welcome to our forums. As clark conure has said, your birds can certainly be trained. Having said that, though, I've never trained our Lovies because they were purchased as 'aviary birds' so we assumed it wasn't possible. They live in a small aviary beside the Beaks and keep everyone laughing with their antics.

I just wanted to chime in and say that target training is the very best way to teach your birds to go back in their cage of their own accord. You can check out our training section or do a search on YouTube to find out how it's done. Once your bird has learned to target, you can get him or her to go anywhere for you. That's *such* a relief: I well remember chasing my Beaks around the house, trying to persuade them it was bedtime. What a disaster that was! Then, with target training, they just went. Right where I sent them.

Now, I have a new corella and she's pretty darned unruly. However, the first thing I taught her was to target and one thing we *don't* have trouble with is sending her back to her cage. It is possible to teach a bird to target inside its cage. You just touch your target stick to surfaces inside the cage and reward as usual. That assumes, of course, that your birds are happy to take treats from your hand. If not, then you'll need to tame them first, using the method outlined by clark conure.

No one ever mentioned anything about paired birds to me when I first brought my Beaks home. I just interacted with them and trained them together. I've never had a moment's problem with either of them failing to listen to me or respond because of their pair bond. I just have the pair out at the same time and do things with them in turn, depending on who's ready to train and and who'd rather veg out on the perch.

Have fun with your Lovies! They're lovely little birds and SO entertaining to watch, even when they're not training.

PS. Our Lovies like to bounce on a plastic Slinky toy strung across their cage. They're SO funny, bouncing and bounding along it, hanging and swinging from it, or scurrying through it as if it were a tunnel.

 

[BurtyNBetty]

Thanks Betrisher, we will definitely be giving the target training some research and be top of the list on things to teach our lovies

We love the slinky idea too!

 

[clark_conure]

Now i want to get a slinky toy! I have had them before the cheap plastic springs (knockoff slinkys)...I never realized birds with them!!!!!!