My male lovebird is ready to mate especially when he hears or sees my female chick who is only two months old. What shall I do? It pains me to see him pining for her but he sings so well, is so playful, I’m very reluctant to give him up. I’ve no other option at the moment…
Hi,
You definitely need to keep these birds apart until she is about two years old, whether you plan to breed them or not. If you put them together now, he is very likely to end up killing her because she isn’t old enough to breed and he will get frustrated that she doesn’t respond to his advances. Even though she may be sexually mature as young as 8 months, you should never breed a bird that young or put her in a situation that may cause her to start laying eggs. Birds will become sexually mature at too young of an age in captivity. Even though they could reproduce at a young age, they should not for many reasons. A young bird is at a much higher risk of becoming egg bound and dying. Young birds are not mentally developed enough to be a good breeder. They make mistakes, don’t sit on the eggs, break the eggs, eat the eggs, ignore chicks if they hatch or even kill or eat the chicks. They simply are not ready and instead of becoming a good breeder, they develop bad habits and end up being ruined as a breeder.
If you plan to breed them, then you can look into that in a couple of years. If you want them to both remain pets – because breeder birds rarely remain tame – then keep them apart even when she is older. There are a lot of ways you can try to reduce the hormonal behavior in the male. We recently held a 2 part webinar series on this. I would encourage you to watch the videos of these because you will learn a lot and it will help you with your current situation.
Webinar: “Spring Is In the Air: How To Deal With Your Pet Bird’s Hormonal Behavior!”
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
