The Lovebirds

The Lovebirds
Perfect Pairs
Showing posts with label feather plucking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feather plucking. Show all posts

Thursday, January 12, 2012

What to Feed my Lovebirds?


Lovebirds are such a wonderful creature and there is hardly anybody who does not love these tiny birds. These birds as the name suggest love to remain in pairs. These lovebirds spend hours together sitting side by side to its partner.

These birds are in fact smaller version of parrots. They grow to the size of 5 inches and can live for 15 years. Though these lovebirds are small, there is no shortage of activity and noise level. Many like to have these lovely creatures at home as pet. But most f them are not aware what to be fed to them. Here is little information about the feed for lovebirds.

The lovebirds like to feed on fresh and organic foods as they want to live close to the nature as much as possible. The love bird’s food can be pellets of fruits, vegetables and seeds. In wild the lovebirds mainly feed on seeds.

The parrots love to have variety of foods instead of feeding on the same food. Hence one should change the feed every day as there is a lot to be added in the food list such as cooked beans, pasta, fresh grains, brown rice, sprout, wheat grass, non toxic flowers etc.

There are many different verities of lovebirds right from red head to black collar and each species will have different liking when it comes to food. One should be aware of this fact. The black collared lovebirds are fond of fig fruit.

The food provided can be in the form of pellets or the food can be provided by soaking the same in water in order to soften the food. The food that is soft will be digested easily by the lovebirds. The water dish provided must be very clean. The water provided to the love bird should be free from contamination. The water bowls should be cleaned every day in order to avoid bacteria build up.

As discussed earlier, raw fruits and vegetables are good for the health of the lovebirds. But some birds will be very choosy about their food and such lovebirds are to be cared more and their specific requirement should be met with.

One has to be careful while providing the cooked food to the lovebirds. The cooked food should be allowed to cool before feeding. For example the cooked potato will be very hot and if provided as it is before cooling, the poor creature will get its beak damaged and at times the birds may die if the digestive system is damaged too badly. The food that was not consumed by the love bird for more than 24 hours should be removed from the cage and should be thrown out in the dust bin. There should not be any re heating and re using.

The lovebirds are very active and social animals. These birds are likely to slip in to boredom if not properly engaged. The boredom will lead to feather plucking, biting and screaming. One should aim at providing interactive way of feeding the lovebirds. Using food finding toys in case of pellets and skewers in case of fresh foods are recommended to keep the lovebirds in good spirit and to chase the boredom.

Monday, November 9, 2009

How To Control Feather Plucking in Lovebirds?



Have you ever noticed few missing feathers in the crests of wings or breasts of your lovebirds? Then, you should keenly watch your lovebirds for feather plucking. Although this falls under behavior and health, you should be carefully analyze the reason for feather plucking in lovebirds.

Initially feather plucking might have started innocently. But you should nib this problem in the bud itself. Otherwise it will cause your lovebirds complete bald. Then it is really difficult to bring back the colored feathers.

Feather picking among breeding pairs is a common phenomena. A hen lovebird will often clear few hairs on her belly, which is called as brood spot and also pluck few feathers from her mate's head as a mark of mating behavior among themselves.

The other reason for feather picking is hormonal issue. Lovebird pyoderma is the condition which occurs due to hormonal imbalance. If you're having a single lovebird, this is a major problem because it has no outlet for his/her energies.

Rule out the skin infection by examining the skin scraping on microscope. If they suffer from any skin infection- bacteria or fungus, immediately contact your avian veternarian to treat the condition.
Anxiety, frustration and boredom may also lead to feather plucking in lovebirds. There was lovebird which started to pluck its feather after fixing a photograph just in front of her cage. Removing the photograph solved the problem. Who knows what made that poor creature to get more anxious after seeing that particular photograph.

Treatment

Find out the cause for the feather plucking and remove the same at the earliest possible time. Don't use styptic powder in the wound as it would aggravate the condition. Do use diluted betadine solution to clean the wound. More over, don't treat the lovebird on your own. Please do seek an appointment form your avian vet to completely get rid of this problem. ALL THE BEST!!!