Lovebirds are very common pets among the parrot family. They are very social and amazing. They come in beautiful colors. Just like human beings, lovebirds have different personalities. They are distinct in their way. There are nine species of lovebirds. We have the Peach-faced lovebird, the Madagascar lovebird, the Abyssinian lovebird, the red-faced lovebird, the Swindern’s lovebird, the Nyasa lovebird, the Fischer’s lovebird, the masked lovebird, and the black-cheeked lovebird. The peach-faced lovebird is the most famous of the lovebird family. A lovebird can live for up to 20 years in captivity.
Lovebirds are very territorial and they find it difficult to get along with other bird species. The reason why your male and female lovebirds are fighting is because of their natural trait of being territorial. Another reason is that lovebirds easily show signs of jealousy and your female lovebird can get hormonal during her mating season. She may also be fighting with your male lovebird because she is trying to protect her chicks.
If your lovebirds were not properly handled when they were young, fear may develop in them and they may become very aggressive. Plus, your lovebirds may not be friendly with other birds because they didn’t socialize well with humans and other birds when they were young. Just like we said earlier lovebirds easily get jealous, so if you are always interacting with other humans and neglecting it, you will feel left out and may not want to bond with you and other birds very well.
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Also, the old lovebird may be showing signs of aggression because it was not well taken care of by its former owner. And due to hormonal changes, your female lovebird may naturally get aggressive when they reach their adolescent age because of the hormonal changes that happen in their bodies. When you try to invade the territory or cage of your lovebirds, it can also make them aggressive. Mental stress is also another reason why your male and female lovebirds are always fighting.
You can help stop the fight between your male and female lovebirds by keeping them in different cages. You can choose to keep their cages close to each other so they can kiss each other if they want to. If the chicks of your female lovebird are grown enough to eat on their own, you can then separate them from her and keep the male lovebird with her. If the female lovebird and male lovebird keep fighting and they don’t kiss each other for 2 weeks, then you should exchange your male lovebird with another male.
You should also know that the male and female lovebirds are very loving and amazing creatures, they mate for life. If you separate the male from the female and they become single again, they might start displaying signs of depression.
If your male and female lovebirds are enjoying the right condition you provided for them, they tend to overbreed. That is, the female lovebird will always be laying eggs. To avoid stressing your female lovebird because of overbreeding, you should try to provide the wrong environment for them so the breeding would be minimized. What are the right and wrong conditions you can provide your lovebirds with? The right conditions are the provision of enough food, water, excess light and warmth, a nesting box, and a cuddle box. The wrong conditions that can prevent your female lovebird from overbreeding are reducing the amount of light you expose them to, removing the nesting box, and not allowing the room temperature to be always warm. You can also separate them into different cages if all the wrong conditions you tried didn’t work out.
Are you having a hard time determining the gender your lovebirds are? There are certain things you can do to help you determine their gender.
It is very important you know the gender of your love bird so you can name them properly, observe their behavior and health patterns, and know how best to take care of them. You can determine their gender through the following ways.
1. Get a DNA test done
Get a sample of each of your lovebird’s DNA and get it tested to determine their gender. It is very affordable and accurate. Make sure you don’t tamper with the samples you take so you don’t end up losing things up.
2. Their behavioral patterns and habits.
This is also an amazing way of determining the gender of your lovebird. Most female lovebirds are territorial and can easily get aggressive while the makes are usually bold and friendly. She wants to always wants to build her nest and protect the chicks in her nesting box while the male works hard to look for food. The male lovebird usually stays far from the nest during the breeding period. Your female lovebird will lay eggs whether the eggs get fertilized or not. If your lovebirds lay more than 9 eggs within a short period, it may be that both of them are females.
Also, a male lovebird usually chirps loudly and makes a lot of noise while jumping down from a perch. It usually does this when it’s calling out to the female lovebird for mating to happen.
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3. Their physical features
This is also a great way of knowing the gender of your lovebirds. Some persons believe that male lovebirds are usually bigger. But it is not all that true. This is because they attain a specific posture when you see them on perches. They tend to widen up a bit. And then, male lovebirds usually have a less rounded head than females. Some species of the female lovebirds like the Fischer’s have thicker eye rings more than the male lovebirds. You will also notice that the shape of the beak of female lovebirds is wider and larger than that of the male lovebirds. Also, after the female lovebirds lay their first set of eggs, their pelvis bones get slightly separated.
Conclusion
It’s quite natural for your male and female lovebirds to fight due to some reasons that were listed earlier.
Try to understand the behaviors of your lovebirds so you can help them bond well. Interact with them often because they are social birds so they don’t feel neglected. When your lovebirds start to fight, put them in separate cages
Lovebirds are so beautiful to keep as pets. Treat them well when you adopt one.