lovely birds





What you see are the cute "inakays" (chicks) of my African love birds. The big one came 3 days ago, followed by the one on the left, and the other one which is barely visible came this morning. As you can see, there are still 2 eggs to hatch. This is the 3rd clutch since we got the parents.





These birds are from the 1st and 2nd clutch of my breeders. They all came from the same parents but their colors vary. Maybe the gray, blue and olive birds got their color from their grandparents.





Now these are the parents (breeders) the one on the perch is the cock and the the yellow one is the hen. My kids call them mom and dad. I am not very familiar with their kind, all I know is the female is a Creamino and the male is Pied.


I do not have an aviary and there's no room in our house for one. What I did was put the pair in a cage and put a nest box on the side. Give them plenty of water (which you should change two times daily), mixed seeds, sunflower seeds, egg and biscuit (you can buy it in a pet shop) and fresh vegetables like celery, carrots, broccoli and parsley.

It is important to realize that while lovebirds are a small parrot, they have the intelligence and abilities of some of the largest parrots. They can awe you with their ability to escape their own cages. You have to put locks on the cage door because believe me, they can figure out a way to open them. My nephew's African eye ring did that.

You cannot tell if a lovebird is a male or a female just by looking at it. You can ask the real breeders for help and here's what I got from them. The hens tend to have a wider stance on the perch, and they are a bit larger, they also have wider pelvic bones that can be felt with an index finger. I tried it but still, I know I'm not accurate. They say, the pelvic bones of the hen also tend to move a bit when felt, which makes it easier for the eggs to pass.

Lovebirds make lively and energetic pet birds. They love to play for hours and hang from toys. They can be noisy at times but I guess its their way of cheering you up.


1 comment:

Preeti Shenoy said...

Wow--that was lovely.My son has been asking me to get him a parrot.I'm a big animal lover.But somehow I feel sorry for a caged bird.I have kept hamsters,fishes,dogs,cats..but never birds.
Fascinating to read though.

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