Foster eggs

**Mahmood Tahery** · 05-18-2012, 12:30 AM

Hi, I'm new here... I got this site it's wonderful full of rich information of varities of birds.
My question is:
I have to lovely pair lovebird, the female had its male past away a month age and bought it a new male and now its nearly 3 weeks since they are together they sometime fight and after they will poron each other. I also add a nestbox 2 weeks age ago. I add some fresh palm leaves so they can shred and keep in the box. I see them shred and keep it under there tail. I am ready for them to breed but no sign of them mating. They are showing nest behavior but no eggs until now. I was thinking that they can foster other lovebird egg. Is it a good decision or should I wait. I want them to breed so badly.
Waiting for ur reply. Thank you in advance.

**mask** · 05-18-2012, 06:38 AM

Remove the box and make sure they are properly bonded and in condition before breeding. How old are they are what species?

**Mahmood Tahery** · 05-18-2012, 10:39 AM

They are both peach face lovebirds
they are getting along, they kiss and cuddle sometimes but on occasion they will fight (not badly)
so do you think I should separate them for a couple of days..

**mask** · 05-18-2012, 12:40 PM

Don't seperate them no, just give them time to get used to their environment and to each other. How old are they?

**Mahmood Tahery** · 05-18-2012, 01:51 PM

Well I'm not sure how old they are but they don't have the black beaks like the younger ones have.
Back to my original question I have a pair of peach faced lovebirds and was thinking of adding foster eggs in their nestbox since I can't see any progress, they both are having nesting behavior and it stopped there. I don't know if they mated or not if they had mated i would see some eggs.

**kristenn** · 05-18-2012, 02:33 PM

im no expert but why would you add foster eggs?? where would you get them from?? and why do you want them to breed "so badly"? i say let nature take its course and if they dont mate and lay eggs then it wasn't meant to be....

**Mahmood Tahery** · 05-18-2012, 03:08 PM

Well I want them to breed (FYI Kirsten )
But they spend a lot of their time shredding palm leaves which I provide daily and they also have a nestbox, both spend a lot of time together in there. So will they mate?
Is it like nesting behavior leads to mating?

**mask** · 05-18-2012, 03:54 PM

If you don't know the age they could be very young and not old enough to breed ... When you don't know the age of a bird, you should always wait 1 year until you try and breed it .. not 3 weeks

It's a stressful time for a bird, breeding that is. A young, developing chick can require upto 7 times the nutritional requirements of a matured, adult bird. A lovebird will continue to grow and develop until 18 months of age, so when you breed a bird before then, they have to provide the growing goods for a nest of young, aswell as themselves, because they are still growing also. This is a lot to ask. Most people tend to say "12 months" old to breed ... I strongly disagree, it's simply too young.

I don't understand the foster egg part either, whether would you get the eggs from? You can't place eggs under a pair and expect them to incubate them, very very very few birds would do this. You can "add" an egg to another nest of eggs to foster it though.

You say "they" spend alot of their time shredding ... If they are both shredding you may have 2 females. Personally I feel if you do not know the age, the condition and it's questionable whether they are bonded - you shouldn't be breeding them yet. You need to prepare the birds for breeding and not rush into it. Fail to prepare - prepare to fail.

P.S mating does not always mean eggs. 2 females can often be seen mating. Shredding is a nesting behaviour, but may not lead to eggs either.

**Mahmood Tahery** · 05-19-2012, 02:12 PM

Well I think this is the end of this thread.
Today I went to the local pet shop and the owner is a lovebird breeder and told me I have gotten it all wrong the slightly bigger lovebird which I thought was a female turned out to be a male vis versa. He also told me to have a successful breed I shouldn't check the nestbox everyday which I use to after 3 to 4 weeks. This will only delay her eggs since she will not trust the nestbox to secure her eggs. He also told me that if they layed 8 eggs they are both female and if they didn't lay eggs after 3 months both are male. But if they layed 4 to 5 eggs I have a true lovebird pair. Any body care to comment on this statement.

**maxollie** · 05-20-2012, 11:10 AM

The only real way to tell the sex of the birds is to have them DNA sexed by either a Vet, or you can go on-line and get a kit to use to sex them. I doubt just looking at them will solve the question of whether they are male or female. I would suggest you do some research on lovebird breeding. There is a great deal of information on-line about lovebird behavior, breeding and properly caring for them. Breeding birds can never be taken lightly. Many things can go wrong when you breed them, including egg binding of the female, which can result in death of the bird.

**Albe** · 05-20-2012, 03:08 PM

The person at the pet store has given you a good guideline to guess off of. But, its just that- a guess. The only true way to sex is a DNA test or eggs. I have had a pair for 3 months (one is 7 year old female, other is 8 month old chick) and I have had NO eggs. Some females will only lay once a year, some every other month, some people on this board have had birds that lay their first clutch at 8 years old! What colors are your birds? If one is yellow it has a higher chance of being female. Ways to encourage breeding are giving more food- more fruits and veggies, and more sunlight hours. If your birds are under a year old it is unlikely (and unhealthy) they will breed. To me it sounds like your birds just don't know each other well enough yet.Give them some time! You want them to be very bonded before they have any chicks. Hormones do weird things to birds and it is just better if they already know each other well before they go crazy :P

**mask** · 05-20-2012, 03:15 PM

The owner of the pet shop obviously has very little experience with lovebirds.

Quite a few females will lay 8 eggs, it does not mean you have 2 females.

If they don't breed after 3 months it can mean they are simply not ready for various reasons. (environment, age, condition etc etc)/

I check the nestboxes every day. I want to know when every egg was laid, and also number them. I want to make sure everything is going well inside the box. This does not give bad breeding results.

**Mahmood Tahery** · 05-21-2012, 02:12 PM

Well I wil keep them as they are female-female or male-male and see any progress or a behavior of a true pair plus with their off springs "in god will" if they do have.
Thank you for every body who cared to share some useful info that I and other users can use in hard times.