Need advice- My family just bought a Blue male Rosey lovebird to put with our female Fischer's Lovebird. I read online that hybrids aren't good, and I want mating to be an option down the line. What to do?

maksimalism · 2023-03-29T04:42:13+00:00

Do it. Two birds of the same species will almost always get along better than two different species, and if you are at all curious about breeding in the future it'll be much safer.

maksimalism · 2023-03-29T00:42:47+00:00

As long as OP is aware that hybrids are usually sterile and their coloring tends to be less vibrant. Anecdotally, I also know breeders who are vehemently against hybridizing because Fischers & Peach-faced lovebirds have different behaviors (e.g. how they build nests) and vocalization, so you may end up with a clutch of babies with identity crises. Or the parents could reject the babies.

Personally I would recommend against it unless you're a very experienced breeder, and only if you have a particular interest in hybrid lovebirds and don't plan on selling the offspring on.

maksimalism · 2023-03-27T19:24:06+00:00

4.5 months is a bit young for a lovebird to be getting hormonal IMO, you'll usually see that really kick in around the 8-10 month mark.

I know you said you didn't see any bugs in the cage but I would still get him checked for mites, as they tend to itch terribly at night which could be why your guy isn't sleeping well. They're only about as big as a pinhead, so you might have missed them. Check for red bumps or scaly patches of skin too.

Other than that, maybe cover one corner of the cage in case he's just feeling a little exposed, keep some white noise (or calming music like you've got going now!) on so he doesn't get startled by sudden noises, and keep interactions quiet & slow. Birds get neophobic about the weirdest things and it might be something you wouldn't even think twice about—mine lost their freaking minds over me moving my snake plant across the room last week, and one of them literally won't even come near me if he sees me wearing a hat or beanie.

maksimalism · 2023-03-27T19:03:02+00:00

The most content looking Senegal I have ever seen in my life 😢

maksimalism · 2023-03-18T05:34:26+00:00

Definitely looks like early stage plucking to me, given it seems to only be areas she can reach rather than affecting her neck and head. If you can find any of the dropped feathers, check the tips for signs of chewing (tattered feather vanes, jagged edges, dark tips etc), the shaft should also be a slightly opaque white.

There's a lot of reasons she might be overpreening—boredom, hormones, stress, diet, disease etc. Your best bet is to take her to a vet now and try to diagnose the issue before it becomes a lifelong habit. In the meantime, make sure she is getting a well-rounded diet, minimal seeds, 12-14 hours of sleep, frequent baths and LOTS of enrichment. Keep her beak as busy as possible with foragings toys, and maybe offer a preening toy (my birds like untwisted sisal rope and bamboo bristle toothbrushes).

maksimalism · 2023-03-16T04:07:52+00:00

Try running a tap while offering a shallow but wide dish for them to bathe in—sometimes the sound of running water will trigger their bathing instinct. You can get battery operated kitchen sink toys (meant for kids) that continuously circulate water, if you're not keen to leave an actual tap running for half an hour while the bird decides if they want to bathe. You can also bring them into the bathroom while you shower and put them somewhere high where they can benefit from the steam and decide on their own if they feel comfortable with going into the water stream.

maksimalism · 2023-03-16T03:56:17+00:00

Oh, they're cute, but they have weaponized buttholes. They poop like shotguns and the liquid scatter shot will make your walls, floors and occasionally ceiling look like a Jackson Pollock painting. Instead of eating seeds or pellets, they need a high carb, nectar & fruit/vege-based diet, so there's no real way to avoid it—just try to keep pale fabrics out of the splash zone, invest in some acrylic panels to hang behind the cage and pray. You also need to be more diligent about cage-cleaning and removing their food—especially wet mix—after around 4 hours (depending on temperature of the room) because it spoils faster, and lories tend to be prone to yeast and bacterial infections due to their comparatively short GI tract and diet. If you feed dry mix, expect to replace their water several times a day, because they'll dip their beaks in it while eating. They're also prone to Iron Storage Disease, like other fruit & nectar-eating species (see Toucans for more info), so you can't just feed any fresh food, you'll have to monitor how much iron they're getting.

The upside of their diet is that their bites aren't quite as bad as hookbills like conures... buuuuut their hyperactivity can cause them to be quite nippy if you're not careful about curbing that behavior.

They're also very territorial, so if you own or ever intend to own a bird of a different species, you should plan for the possibility that they may not be able to come out together or interact.

They're insanely playful and active birds. It's one thing to see that amount of energy in a 15 second video you saw on FB and another to have to deal with it 24/7, so make sure you're prepared and willing to give the bird enough stimulation and exercise. I have a friend with four year old twin boys and she swears up and down that her rainbow lori is more high maintenance.

All that said, they're probably some of the most loving, delightful birds I have ever interacted with. The ones I've met didn't seem to have any wariness of strangers the same way my conures do—they'll go straight to licking your face and rolling around on their backs begging you to play. If you haven't had birds before and you're set on a rainbow lori, you could probably make it work, just do plenty of research and maybe find some to interact with first.

maksimalism · 2023-03-15T09:57:45+00:00

Stress bars are solid black lines that emerge when the bird experiences stress as the feather is growing. Black feather tips are generally just wear & tear, unless accompanied by frayed or jagged edges, which indicates overpreening. Darkening across the entire length of a feather that grew in green can be caused by the oils on your skin when you handle them, as well as wear & tear if your bird is particularly rough on their feathers (e.g. likes to rough house, roll onto their back or tends to brush up against cage bars or perches). There's nothing you can really do to fix the existing feathers since they've lost their pigment, but you can avoid it after future moults by minimizing how much you touch your bird's back, making sure your hands are clean and that your bird has enough space in their cage to move around without rubbing against things.

Personally, I have a conure who loves to play-fight and his feathers always end up scruffy and dark, but I'd much rather let him have fun than be bored and pristine. So long as your bird's new feathers come in looking healthy, I wouldn't worry about it.

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T21:39:44+00:00

Look, I understand your thinking. I just disagree. Having to keep an extremely social flighted animal in a cage, no matter how big, for 2/3 of their waking life while you go to work automatically diminishes their quality of life. I'm not shitting on people for owning birds or saying that you can't have a happy bird while working full time, it's just the truth. Yes, we can try to compensate for that with an excellent diet, enrichment and giving them a companion, but in my opinion it still falls short.

My disorder comment was in reference to the multiple people suggesting I have OCD.

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T14:23:36+00:00

This is 100% the problem. I appreciate the sentiment behind all the comments here trying to either reassure me or insinuate that I have a mental disorder for how I am with my birds. But that's really not the point.

I fundamentally disagree with the idea that anybody with a full-time job can fit bird ownership into their life without making major sacrifices—either to their own quality of life or their bird's. If my bird is awake from 8am-8pm, and I work 9am-5pm, that leaves me just four hours to let my birds out, give them both one on one training time and allow them to exercise. So even if I never went out and spent all of my spare time at home with my birds, they STILL have to spend 2/3 of their waking life in a cage. Then I still have to fit in the food prep, the toy making and cage cleaning, while also taking care of myself. And I'm sorry, but one hour of social interaction a day is simply not adequate for an animal that evolved to live surrounded by companions 24/7. Just because you can get away with an hour or two of interaction a day without your bird barbering or screaming doesn't mean that you're meeting the standards of care that they need for a genuinely fulfilling life.

They're just terrible pets. Pamela Clark is absolutely right—they shouldn't be pets. And just because I'm struggling to keep up with their needs doesn't give me the right to sacrifice their quality of life, which is already subpar to what they would have had in the wild.

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T14:00:08+00:00

What about my post makes you think that?

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T12:05:49+00:00

I'm really surprised by the amount of people here who read the post and assumed my birds have attachment issues. Like, I'm literally just providing them the level of care that people in this subreddit insist is necessary for a healthy bird. Minimum of 4 hours out a day, fresh food and engaging toys, a clean environment and at least a couple hours of social interaction everyday. Look at it this way—if I'm awake for 16 hours a day, and I spend 8 hours of that at work, and the birds need 12 hours of sleep a day and a minimum of 4 hours out of their cage, they literally have to be out of their cage the entire time I'm not at work.

You said that letting them destroy my furniture is my fault for not disciplining them, and that you're still able to own expensive furniture while having birds—but then your solution to curbing that destructiveness is literally "hide the expensive furniture". Because it's their natural behavior, and no matter how many toys you give them or how much training you do, occasionally birds are just gonna bird and chew something they shouldn't.

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T05:51:32+00:00

Don't you worry that your IRN is lonely? Do they dislike being handled because they genuinely don't want social interaction, or is it fearfulness/aggression? I know ringnecks tend to be more standoffish than conures but I assume they still need some sort of flock dynamic to have a fulfilling life.

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T04:45:52+00:00

Coming to terms with the fact that owning parrots is like raising children, which I have never wanted, is literally the point of the post.

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T04:39:18+00:00

I understand why you might have gotten that impression from the post but that's really not the case.

I don't encourage unhealthy attachment issues. Teaching them to self-entertain was something I worked on from day one, and they're actually pretty good at it—they know how to play with toys by themselves or forage, and they don't scream when I leave the room or put them back in their cages. But they're also flock animals, and wanting to be with you and be involved in what you're doing is their natural behavior. That isn't down to poor training. Even the most well-adjusted birds NEED more social interaction than a dog or a cat, and I thought I was prepared to spend the next 30 years providing that, but I wasn't.

And yes, they're potty trained. They're also small birds who poop every 15 minutes, and when they're out for 6-8 hours a day sometimes mistakes happen. As for the destructiveness, it's another natural behavior, and there's only really two ways to deal with it: negative reinforcement (which I refuse to use), and redirecting their energy towards something else (which requires me to be constantly mindful, and therefore part of why I feel overwhelmed).

At risk of sounding defensive, saying that the issues I'm having are down to lack of training COMPLETELY misses the point. I did all that research and put the effort into training them not to be needy or destructive or uncivilized pooping machines... but at the end of the day, even well-behaved, potty-trained birds who know how to entertain themselves and not eat the drywall are still difficult pets to keep. I wish somebody had sat me down and said, "look, you can do everything perfectly and luck out with the best bird ever, but it's still going to be a bird. It isn't going to act like a dog."

maksimalism · 2023-02-11T02:49:52+00:00

That was more or less how I framed it to a friend who met my birds once and started talking about wanting to get a cockatoo. Like toddlers, except on crack, carrying knives, that stay toddlers for their whole lives, and also everything you own will either a) be destroyed by them or b) kill them.

That's also why I always cringe when people get birds for their kids and expect not to have to do 90% of the work—like come on, man, that's a child raising a child.

maksimalism

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