Lovebirds in Love

[Rikki0624]

Hello Everyone, This is my first post but have followed your posts for sometime. A little background and hopefully someone can help. I bought my original Fischer’s Lovebird (Romi- confirmed F) 2 yrs ago. My friend who owns a rescue knew that I loved them and asked if I could house a bonded pair as she was moving and did not have the space- I decided to adopt them. (Lilo and Loli - Peachface, assumed males as there is no breeding activity and they have been together their entire life). Both Lilo and Loli have shown interest in Romi but Lilo and Romi really seem to have fallen in love. He feeds her, sits by her during free flight, preens her and calls for her. She accepts all of his affections and even presents herself to him. Sadly I have to always keep a cage between them as they are two different breeds and even if they weren’t I am not sure what that would mean for the other guy Loli. Romi will present to Loli and Loli will climb around her cage but it is NOTHING like Romi and Lilo. They seem to really fancy each other. I am sad that their breeds won’t allow them to be close but with their behaviors they would mate surely right away. This has been going on a couple of months. In fact Romi has already layed infertile eggs. I have just noticed recently that the 2 bonded boys seems to be getting distant with each other. They used to preen each other and swing together constantly but now I notice Lilo seems frustrated with Loli and hops away from him to other locations in the cage. My questions is, are they losing their bond and if so, is it likely to lead to them hurting one another? I hate to separate them since they have been together all of their lives but I also have to keep them safe. This all is really sad to watch. Seeing that bond being damaged (if it is) and seeing two (Romi and Lilo) want to be together so bad and I can allow it. What do you think and what would you do? PS: I don’t want to breed so trying to find Romi, the female, a female mate that she will accept would be a huge task. She is a pretty fiery one even on the scale of Lovebirds and just doesn’t seem to like other females. If I got a male, I wouldn’t even know if she would accept him, although she seems to be hormonal all the time so may allow it.

 

[Zara]

If this were me, I would let the three out of their cages, and observe. See who goes with who. What happens. If there is clearly a connection between Romi and Lilo, then as you said you don´t want to breed, let them be together. Move them into Romis cage. Don´t move Romi into Lolis cage, kicking Loli out.

If you are responsible enough not to allow them to breed, then there´s no reason they can´t be together. They can preen, play, mate, snuggle , all of those things, but when you get eggs, swap them for dummy eggs (or boil the egg, let it cool down, then put it back - in the long run you will find dummy eggs helpful and worth the investment). I have a bonded brother/sister pair of peach-faced lovebirds and I let them do all the lovey dovey things together, but when eggs are laid, they get switched for dummy eggs and always will.

I would consider, if you have the space for one more lovebird, to maybe add another female in the hopes she pairs with Loli. The problem is that that´s not guaranteed, but there is a small chance. Plus it means there´s a bird to interact with that is not in a bonded pair. Three birds together can be quite complicated. And maybe in time they will accept each other and maybe even one day bond. But on the flip side, at that 3 going into having 4 lovebirds mark is when the noise gets seriously cranked up. Definitely a big decision.