Love bird babies & a nest box

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

Whats the best thing to put in the nest box for love birds babies (approx 6 weeks old to sleep in? I got them yesterday & the cage I'm using for now is one that I built for a pair of my finches but wasn't using anymore. Its 2ft x 2ft x 2ft. I was told not to put them in anything bigger until they were a little older cause they might hurt themselves. Anyway, the cage has a nest box attached to it. Well, eventhough I bought them a T-P tent thing to sleep in, they slept in the nest box last night. And thats where they hide while I'm changing their food & water. Should I leave it there? Take it out? Use newspaper? Someone told me that the nest box might make them revert to being babies again? I thinks its cute to see them peaking out at me watching what I'm doing. Any help would be great. Thanks, Crystal

[birdlady49]

I've always used a nice, thick layer of pine shavings in my nestboxes. You can find a "cube" of pine shavings at any petstore or even Walmart.

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

Thanks. I put some coconut fiber (hairs off the coconuts) in there for now. Thats what I was told to put in there for the finches. But they are trying to eat it. I will change it tomorrow. Crystal

[CrazyBirdLady]

Since these lovebirds are not 6 weeks old, you don't need a nestbox as it will begin to encourage breeding behaviors as well as give them a hiding place to not become used to everyday life in the house.

If you want to offer them a cozy or a Chube to sleep in at night, that might be comforting, but one babies are weaned, they don't need a nestbox.

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

I didn't take it off cause it covered the hole I made in the cage for the nest box. It won't upset them if I take it off? They sleep in it every night & hide in it when I change their food. Crystal

[birdsnreps]

ive had bad experiences wtih babies eating pine shavings, i will NOT use them ever again. i use shredded newspaper now, been using it for almost 3 years now and never had probs with it.

unless you wanna breed those lovebirds, i would not give them a nestbox. a happy hut would prob be better.

[birdlady49]

These are the birds you talked about in another post, and we safely assumed that they're older babies ... not six weeks old as that lying breeder told you. They should not have a nestbox at all. So I guess the discussion about substrate is a moot point! You don't want them running into a nestbox everytime you approach them anyway.

Take it down!

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

Thanks for the info. Its coming off today. Crystal

[robi]

Hi! Robi here, my lovies hatched their eggs, out of five eggs, three hatched. All are doing well, actually great! I have them and their parents [penny and tooster] in the same cage its a three x three kinda square kinda oblong. Their mom and pop never would use the nesting box, and did a great job on raising their young'uns, now mom and pop are starting another clutch, I'm looking for another cage for the weaned ones, but other than the cage their in now, they get along great with each other, is there any reason why I can't or shouldn't keep them all together?

[Monica]

Robi, usually when a hen wants to go to nest again, she may attack her chicks and want them out... Not only that but you don't want the young chicks to mature then want to breed with one of their parents or eachother...

There are nice flight cages on the market....
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