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[puttana]

I decided to keep busy at work today researching what type (types) my new lovebird could be. She was supposed to be a peachface, but something tells me she isn't, even under generous peachface typing...

I am starting to think that she may be a "lilian's lovebird", which is a nice thought, because I just read somewhere that the youngsters are duller

Comments

[cassiopeja]

I don't know anything about lovebird (other than they are CUTE!) but you shouldn't keep parrot in a round cage, I don't exactly know why but I'd assume that the birds like the corners for safely and round cages are almost always too small. A lovebird cage should be at least 28"x18"x24"

Anyways, he's really cute, I love that he has so many colors. :)

[cassiopeja]

Oh sorry. I mean her!

[zandperl]

It's my understanding that the main reason against round cages is safety. If you look in the very first image at the top you'll see that the bars get closer together. It is possible for a bird to get a toe caught/pinched in here and for this to result in injury.

[puttana]

yeah, that's the temporary "Don't kill Zeppy while I'm at work" cage, my aim is to move them in together when they stop trying to kill eachother (if Zeppy ever stops picking fights, but that's a post for another day...) hahaha

[cassiopeja]

Haha awww. Good luck! I hope they'll be able to make friends :)

[kily07]

You should keep in mind that they may never get along too.
I have 2 lovebirds and they get along but for medical reasons (they have a different diet) I have to keep them in separate cages so my room ended up looking like this:

[puttana]

aww, boo! see when I first brought Rosie home the were spoiling for a fight, from their respective cages. then when they were finally allowed to mingle it went down and Rosie gave Zeppy a good what-for. Since then rosie has never started anything with Zeppy, I think she actually likes him and at the least understand the setriment of pissing off mommy's favourite (not that she's a saint, I think she's gunning to kill my lamed 'tiel Joe

[kily07]

That sounds like they definitely need supervision when they're out together :)
Lovebirds can bite toes off and do some serious damage when pissed off so you should probably take things slow.
Do they both have clean bills of health?

[kily07]

(By clean bills of health I meant -- tested negative for things like PBFD, Polyoma, Psittacosis)

[puttana]

Yeah, they're both clean, and outside of the cage they are both able to get away easily, which is an extra reason I encourage them to stay outside of the cage when I'm at home.

[bloolark]

It sounds like you've gone WAY too far too fast on the introductions.

Lovebirds are extremely cute, extremely social, and tend to be fairly aggressive to other birds. You'll need a long (and probably longer now that they've fought) time to get them used to each other.

http://community.livejournal.com/parrot_lovers/3651269.html goes into some details on how I got my peach faced lovebird to get along well with my conures.

In the meantime, that cage is a major risk. I'd stop by some pet store and buy a small, cheap square cage ASAP.

[bloolark]

Another thing to keep in mind -- I have heard several stories of parrots not accepting hybrids, and/or picking on them more. It's not to say that they can't, but it's one of those things that you should probably keep in mind. This may be a situation in which they will never get along, and you will have to consider what you'll do in that case.

[puttana]

this is a really naive question, but, how do they know that the other bird is a hybrid?

[bloolark]

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/12/lovebird_behavior_nature_or_nu.php is probably part of it.

Hybrid parrots, in general, are known for having peculiar behavioral issues, which is one of the main reasons that a lot of people (myself included) are so strongly against breeding them.

[kynekh_amagire]

Definitely agreed: the reasoning against round cages is that a) the bars, as zandperl pointed out, tend to converge toward a center point, making it ludicrously easy for birds to get beaks/wings/toes caught in the narrowing gap and injure themselves horrifically; b) round cages, with their exposure-on-all-sides setup, tend to be psychologically unhealthy for sensitive parrots, who can't cope with the corner-less feeling that they have nowhere to hide; c) they're a terrible use of space for parrots, being almost universally tall and narrow (so most of the bottom half is wasted anyway), and it's difficult to hang toys/swings/dishes from the top.

To the OP: I'm assuming this is a temporary/quarantine cage, so to make it a bit more habitable, you can use clothespins or heavy-duty binder clips to hang toys from the top. My pionus lived in a round cage for a couple of months after I got him, before I bought the Pionus Palace he lives in now. The old cage was a beast: here's a picture of it empty next to my medium-sized dog. (It's still in my