Hi Haz,
Lovebird males and females look identical. There are no size or color differences between the males and females. If one of your birds is smaller and lighter colored, it might be a different color mutation. Hopefully it is a peach face, because there are different species of lovebirds and there are size differences between the sexes. Both the males and females will shred paper and tuck the paper under their rump feathers. And two males or two females will bond and behave as a bonded male and female and feed each other. So based on your description, you can’t know that you have a male and female. The lack of eggs may indicate that you have two males. Unless one bird lays an egg, the only way to know 100% is to have a DNA test run.Also, females are more territorial, especially when breeding, so if one bird charges at you when you get near the cage, that is a strong indication of a female. The males generally do not get as aggressive.
However, before you look into doing that, first I’ll explain how you can set them up correctly for breeding. First, get rid of the coconut because it is not nearly large enough for a lovebird nest. Those are a novelty item and are not appropriate for any species as an actual nest except possibly for some finches. Search online and order a nest box that is made for a lovebird. They are fairly large and made of wood. Lovebird chicks are nearly as large as the adults before they leave the nest box, so the nest box has to be large enough to accommodate 6 lovebirds – 4 chicks being the average clutch size plus the two adults. The best kind to get is the type that attaches to the outside of the cage, because a nest box has to be removed when the birds are not breeding. Birds only need a nest for breeding season – they do not use or sleep in a nest during the rest of the year. Leaving a nest available all year will cause a pair to over breed and if a pair is allowed to keep having clutches of eggs over and over, the female will eventually die from the strain on her system of laying too many eggs. In the wild, a pair will only lay eggs once a year, during breeding season. In captivity, you can allow two clutches per year, with a 6 month rest in between. So that means as soon as the chicks leave the nest, you have to take the nest box away or block the entry to prevent the pair from breeding again too soon. You also need an extra age for any chicks, because they have to be separated from the parents as soon as they are weaned, or the parents will either pick on them or try to breed with them. You should never breed related birds.
Since you have had these birds for 2 years, then they are old enough to breed, as you shouldn’t give lovebirds a nest box or try to breed them until they are about 2 years old. They need to be on a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellet or our foraging diets – a seed mix will not provide the nutrition they need. You also should offer dark leafy greens and chopped veggies and fruits. When you have them set up for breeding, you should also offer multi grain bread and cooked eggs, with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the eggs. These last two foods should only be fed when they are breeding, laying eggs and feeding chicks. You should attach the nest box to the outside of the cage as high as possible. In some cases, you may have to cut a hole in the cage unless you have an actual breeding cage, which will have an extra door up high where the nest box entrance goes. The birds need to be in a quiet, private area of the house where you only check on them quickly and feed them. They need privacy so a family room where people are all the time is not a good breeding environment. When they are being rested from breeding, a family room is ideal. You can buy some Aspen wood shavings and put about an inch in the nest. It has to be Aspen – other wood shavings have too much dust and aromatic oils that will irritate their respiratory system. They still may kick most of the nest material out, but put it is there and let them decide. The nest box floor will have a concave area where she lays the eggs and that helps to keep the eggs together. Once you have all of these things set up, then hopefully they will explore the nest box and eventually settle down and lay eggs. It might take a few weeks or a few months, or not at all. Not all birds make good breeders, and breeding birds is not easy and takes a lot of patience on your part. You will likely have failures before they successfully raise any chicks. Most first clutches fail to even hatch. And once they do hatch chicks, they don’t always figure out they need to feed the chicks. But it’s best to let nature take its course and let the parents learn. Lovebird chicks are very hard to try to hand feed from day 1 and there is a high mortality rate. So you really need to let the parents make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. With any luck, you will end up with some chicks within another year. If you decide all of this is too much to deal with – and trust me, it is a lot of work on your part – and you decide you don’t want to breed them, then don’t give them a box or anything they can get inside of or use as a nest. Again, they do not need a nest for sleeping.
Good luck with your pair and I hope it all works out! 🙂
Brenda
