my pair of lovebirds Mated and had babies back in October. one of the babies looks exactly like the parents but the other one is almost totally light grey with a hint of olive green. the others are bright blue and green. What would make this happen to the little grey one?
Hi Michele,
Nothing happened to it and nothing it wrong with it. There are a lot of color mutations in lovebirds. People who breed for the pet trade usually do not keep any records and just try to get the colors that sell for the most money. Lovebirds have been so indiscriminately bred, there are likely no truly pure lovebird species in captivity. Mutations are caused by a genetic flaw. A lovebird can be one color and carry the gene mutation that will produce a different color. So you really never know what other colors you might get from your pair. Your pair are both color mutations and not the true lovebird color if they are blue. All lovebird species are some form of green as the main color, with other colors as markings. But blue is a color mutation caused by one of these genetic flaws. Most of the offspring will look like the parents, but you are likely to get at least one other color in each clutch. Just remember that your parents need to be rested in between each clutch and rested for 6 months. You should limit them to two clutches per year. So if the chicks have left the nest box, remove the nest box and don’t give it back to the parents for 6 months. As soon as the chicks are weaned, you need to take them away from the parents. And you should never let the chicks breed with each other. If you keep them, they will try to start breeding as young as 8 months old.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
