will a male and female lovebird always mate?

[sally1974]

I have both a male and a female but I don't want them to mate is it true that they will only mate if they have a nestbox?

[Marrie]

No that isn't true - they can and will mate with or without one, but it is more likely if you give them one. There are tricks to prevent mating (increase in night time hours, decrease in excess foods, temperature and humidity control, etc) ... if you browse around mask and other breeders have given pointers on this topic in a few threads in the lovie section. Also, if they do mate and lay eggs, you can replace the eggs with plastic fakes (sold online, or in certain pet stores) or prevent the eggs being viable so that you don't have babies.

[sally1974]

Thank you Marie, I really don't want them to mate. The other question I have is if the hen did lay eggs and I replaced them. How long do I have to leave the fake eggs in the cage for? Won't the hen think it is funny nothing hatched?

[Marrie]

Eventually she'll grow bored with the eggs and abandon them, then you can remove them. If you remove them before she's tired of the eggs though, she may replace them with a new clutch. I believe it's a few weeks usually? Someone with breeding experience would be able to answer that question better.

[sally1974]

Thank you

[Roscoe's Mom]

Are you certain you have a male-female pair? They can form same sex friendships, especially in captivity with limited options, and sometimes breeders or pet stores will sell an unconfirmed pair under the presumption they are male-female. So maybe you should double check them, so you're sure of what you may be in for -- a female-female pair will lay especially big clutches and can become so frustrated by their inability to breed that they don't want to stop. I had a pair of black masks like that once: fiercely loyal pair but they laid year-round if they weren't stopped.

If you don't want to pay for DNA sexing and you don't want to encourage nesting behavior by observing how they behave with nesting materials to do it, pelvically sexing a lovebird is very easy once they trust you. All you need to do that is a hand towel and your index finger

[mask]

They can mate as much as they want, you just don't want them to lay eggs. Mine mate all the time, never see eggs though, unless I want them to.

[Nonnie]

I have a brother and sister lovebirds. Trying to keep them from mating and nesting is a daily struggle. Here are a few tips

don't give the hen access to anything she can shred or make nesting material out of. We even did away with newspaper on the bottom of her cage because she managed to pull it up and shred it. I now use a fitted laminated sheet

limit their hour in the light. I use a cover and it goes on at around 9:30

move the stuff in their cage every week so things do not remain constant

don't let them have anything even remotely nest-like. No happy huts, and large seed bowls that she can sit in.

try and find other things to entertain them. I found out that the hen loves foot toys. I gave her a golf ball to chase around the bottom of the cage and that keeps her mind off the whole having babies.

I also interrupt them if I catch them mating, but since introducing the golf ball they have been pretty good about not doing that.

we have also started giving them more out of cage time (supervised, since they get into everything) and I think that helps as well

[sally1974]

Thank you everyone for the advice, I will try all the tips you have given me