Ask Lafeber

Encouraging Lovebird Breeding

I’ve had my lovebird pair for well over a year and I know they are male and female. They are very close to each other but they have never done any type of courting behavior. Since I want to breed them, I placed a nesting box in their cage a week and hoped to see them start to show breeding behavior, but they have no interest in going inside it. Is there anything else I can do to encourage breeding behavior or do I just need to wait a while longer?

Hi,

I always say that breeding birds takes a lot of patience. You can set up everything by the book and still see no results. I’m not sure how old these birds are or how you are certain they are in fact male and female. Unless you had a blood test run on both birds, there is no way to know the gender of a lovebird unless it lays an egg. With absolutely no bonding taking place in over a year, my first thought is that you may have 2 same sex birds If their sex was confirmed by a blood test, then it’s hard to know why they are not interested in breeding. Breeding birds need a nutritionally balanced diet – a loose seed mix is not adequate. They also need chopped veggies and fruits, dark leafy greens, cooked eggs and multi grain bread. They need a large cage with the nest box affixed to the outside as high as possible. They also need a lot of privacy. If they were young when you put them together, they are just now old enough to breed so you may see some progress soon. All you can do is wait and see. Some birds are simply not good breeders. But hopefully your pair will soon show some interest.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda