Lovebirds on the Common

The beginning of Lovebird mania was October 2006. Our first pair of lovebirds were Fischers, Ocean and Avery. We went by the book and bought them a beautiful huge cage, lots of toys, and then read  the books again and again, yada, yada... friendly?? not so much... bite...oh ya.  The cage was way to big for just two. You know the drill, we needed more birds to fill the cage, so we went out  to buy two more, but, came home with six more, ... hey they were on sale, a two for one sale who could pass up such a deal?  BUT ...  Guess what?  Ocean and Avery were not buying it or sharing their cage with ANY  Peachfaced birds never mind six. So back to the store for another big cage. I guess we were learning (the hard way) So in came the six Peachfaced look-a-likes, they are Spazzy and Storm,

A few weeks later Donna found a lone Blue Slate, light blue with bad hair, his or her head feathers stick straight up, named Blue. Next came a beautiful Black Masked, he is Zorro.

Then tragedy struck we lost two birds to terrible accidents, Marilyn and Avery. We were heartbroken and their mates Ocean and Elvis were suddenly alone. We were determined to find Elviis and Ocean a mate. By this time we were finding out that they do the picking of mates, not us, in their own time and we sure had plenty of birds to choose from. We also were led to believe, you can just put two together and they will be happy together. Now we have learned that is not the case.  Oh yes, we've also learned the only way sex can be determined is by DNA.  Either blood, feather, or egg shell can be used for DNA testing. We found that using a simple blood test kit is probably the easiest, it's $20.00, just mail in a tiny blood sample and results with a certificate are mailed back.

Then came Nick and Noelle, Christmas birds 2007. They are a pair beautiful Pieds, who eat us out of house and home. 

Next it was Valentine and Robin, a Black Cheeked and a Green Masked, and yes, you guessed it, it WAS Valentines Day.

Then came  Lucky, another Peachfaced. He was at the pet store back in December of 2007 and was all alone for months....we kept going back to see if someone had taken  him home. It broke our hearts, we had so many Peachfaced already and  he was still there. So, "lucky" Lucky came home with us. Oh my... more cages, more toys, more birdies. Still, all of them not very friendly. By this time Elviis was liking  Blue. Unfortunately, Blue ended up with laryngitis, (STRANGEST thing), and needed to go to the vet. It was two days before Blue came home. Elviis no longer would have anything to do with Blue.

March of 2008 was a busy month, three different pet stores and eight new birds. Sunset and Dawn two very shy Fischers were the only  two lovebirds at the store. Our next stop was where we found Maise, a Latino, and Shamrock, a Whitefaced.  Maise and Shamrock are now a pair. Then came  Sky and Saffire a pair of perfect Blue Masked birds. Saffire is one of clowns of the flock. The fifth bird on that day was Lily, who turned out to be Mr. Lily, and looks a lot like Shamrock. Last but not least for March came probably our most interesting and smartest bird, Nasty. Believe me, the name fits. We couldn't understand why the store was so eager to let Nasty go,(they were laughing the whole time we were there).  The longer we debated about getting her, the lower the price got, I think if we had stayed 5 minutes longer they would have just given her to us, free. Well, on the long drive home she ate her way out of a heavy duty cardboard box. Once we got her home she would bite and not let go, thus her name came to us pretty easily. She laughs after she bites. If you inadvertently get to close to her cage, you get bit. The funny thing is, once she comes out of her cage she'll sit on your shoulder all day, with only harmless ear tasting. She loves to take showers under the kitchen faucet, she whistles, and she says ouch!. Wonder where she learned that word? She's a real piece of work. Nasty is a  Latino, bright yellow with red, and always puffed up.  Oh, and she is a master paper cutter, you'd swear it was cut with scissors.

April came and so did our five Lavender Lutinos. They are five of our friendliest, Dewy, Mello, Daisy, Amber and Rudy. The owner of the pet store guarenteed that he could tell the sex of the birds by feeling their bone structure. Of course we wanted to know, so one by one he examined them, putting a red dot on the heads of the male birds. When he was done, we had five identical Lavender Lutinos all with red dots on their heads! As it turns out, Daisy produced four beautiful Lavender Latino babies, Rudy had three, and Amber had three. We know that Dewy is a female and Mello is a male  Four females and one male, so much for feeling bone structure, get the blood test, or just wait and see what happens. Actually there are many subtle tell tale signs that we have noticed that give a good indication of the sex of a bird. Contact us for more information about those secrets.

For the next few months , a lot of our birdies were laying eggs, so the purchasing slowed down.

No new birds were purchased until late August. Summer and Autumn, a pair of very timid Fischers. Then in mid September, came the Criminos, Coral, Crystal, and Camelot. In mid November it was Casper, a beautiful but very shy Diluth with a lavender tail. Salem and Halle, two friendly Green masked, and Ozzie a Blue masked. One week later came Skeeter a beautiful little Pied.                                    

                                                                                                Names                                                                              

Nick & Noelle

Valentine & Robin        Lucky & Dewy            Sunset & Dawn              

Maise & Shamrock   Saffire & Sky     Rudy & Lily        

Nasty 

Daisy & Mello                  Amber & Jade                  Peapod & Sunshine          Bobbi & Buddi

Dusty,Splash

Summer & Autumn

Niknak & Monet'    

Sweetie & Skeeter

Coral

Forrest Foster & Opal Lilac, Aqua-Violet, Topaz, Coconut, Buttercup, Isabelle & Bob,

Fern, Joy, Alleluhia, Kiwi,

Peaches, Tikki,  Iris, Cobalt , Steel, Viva & Tutti

Sophia & Gunnar      Ixtapa,  & Camelot, Arialle, 

Sunday & Whittemore, W/ babies Palm &  Basil,

Gracie & Garcia, Nashua &

Rainbow,  Marty &  Tyng, Maggie & Rusty, Millie, Wilmington & Laurel    

Violet & Goldie, Huck & Becky, Lucy & Dezi, Patch & Sylvia Owen,Pacific & Atlantic, Magda & Siete' Century,Rhoda, Island,  Biddy, Aiya, Tzippa, Aideen and Dulce, Fancy  & Sasha, Solare',Faye, Breeze,Alise,Aliz,,Clover, Echo, Etu, Jaida  and Hope,and Fawna ,Birch,Maple and Sequoia, Apache,Cheyanne  and Sioux ,Valencia,Citrus,            Kizzy,Mango,Tango 

Meadow,Tequilla ,Aspen

Dixie,Flower,Fantasia,Frills

,Fashion, Breeze, Jaida      

Lovie, Kiss, Dusk and Evening,Boo ,Brook,Zuri,

Oceania, Panama