The Lovebirds

The Lovebirds
Perfect Pairs

Sunday, August 31, 2008

What Kind of Perches are Better for Lovebirds?

Perches for lovebirds are an important criteria for making them happy (???) in the cage. The girth of the perch should be more than the diameter of the lovebirds wrapped feet. i.e. the lovebirds foot does not wrap completely around the perch. This is an important criteria in selecting perches for your lovebirds. There are two types of perches available for lovebirds viz., natural perches and cement perches.


Natural Perches

If you want to provide comfort to your lovebird, then natural perches are the best not only for resting but also for chewing. The normal behavior of the lovebirds is removing bark and demolishes the perches. So you need to replace the perch regularly.

While selecting natural perch from trees, you should be careful that the branch should be devoid from pesticides or insecticides. Any how, it is better enough to clean the perch material with 10% bleach solution.

The natural perches for your lovebirds include willow, poplar, pine, manzanita, mulberry, fir, elm, dogwood, crabapple, cottonwood, cactus wood, birch, beech, ash, and apple.

Cement Perches

Some of the lovebirds owner prefer cement perches, which helps in trimming their nails. As these perches are very hard, place them in the place where your lovebird goes everywhere but spent not much of time.

The ideal place for placing these cement perches are just in front of food and water dishes. You will have to clean these lovebirds perches frequently as they use these as an area to wipe its beak. The optimal size of th cement perches would be in such a way that the foot ought to go 3/4 of the way around the perch.

Lovebirds perches are really an important thing to be selected with utmost care to avoid bumble foot and beak disorder(pecking). So perfect perches for your lovebird will definitely help to keep them hale and healthy.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

When Lovebirds Fly In the Rain, Why Doesn't It Hurt Their Eyes?

Have you ever thought about this question? My daughter asked this question. As a vet I supposed to clear off her doubt. In my third year of undergraduate, in the wild life sciene subject, the same question was asked by me. My professor answered for this question.

You can get the answer HERE...

Monday, August 18, 2008

How Lovebirds Fly in the Rain without Hurting Their Eyes?

Do you know answer for this question? If so, please don't read further. As other birds, lovebirds have a special third eyelid, called the nicitating membrane, under their regular eyelids.

It is transparent like motorists goggles on their eyes. It is drawn across the eye to moisten or clean it while flying. Many ornithologists believe the nictitans is held over the eye most or all of the time a lovebird is in the air.

The nicitating membrane in the lovebirds eye protects against collisions when birds are crashing through bushes. The birds of prey especially peregrine falcon knows very well about this membrane- thats why they closes the eyes of the prey immediately after grabbing their prey before the impact of the nicitating membrane.

One step further, Swifts (fastest flying bird) have been widely believed to be able to sleep while flying, although this has not been proved experimentally. Any how scientists believe this fact. But lovebirds never sleep while flying.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Will Lovebirds Enjoy Showers?



Have you ever asked this question - Where are All the Lovebirds When It Rains? They will usually huddle under the leaves of shrubs and trees.

Many places, though, provide no shelter. Consequently, birds have their own rain-evolved feathers. Birds stay relatively dry and warm under these feather.

Still, birds get wet. Most of the birds don't mind to stay in the rain, if they don't find hiding place. After the rain they fluff up their feathers to warm up and help themselves dry off. After a dry spell, even with trees galore, they sit sometimes out in the rain and enjoy showers.