Lovers or Fighters???

[LovingPrettyBird]

ok so i wrote on here when i first got peachy and raz and well here i am again...

i noticed now that they are like a married couple...now i have not yet DNA'd sexed them yet but i am soon going to get to that...but here is my issue...on minute they are loving each other and the next minute its like they want to rip each others heads off...you hear silence then beep beep beep beeeeeep beep beepbeepbeepbeepbeep...its like they are at a marriage therapy and talk crap about each other...so is this normal?? its almost an everyday thing. and its about 4 to 5 times a day that they do this...they will run (not literaly) after each other around the cage and then hop on the perch and then sit next to each other like nothing happened...they each go after each other's feet nipping but never nothing serious but i can tell that they make each other mad cause of how they sound...the beeping (not like a horn but you know what i mean lol) so i guess since one of them havent drew blood yet that its normal that they are like this????

Also im finding that peachy is feeding raz...now i was told by a breeder that peachy was male and raz was female because of how they stand on the perch with their leg stance...but i do see raz ripping up paper and stuffing it in her wings but never see peachy do it at least not the stuffing it in his wings...but im doing the toenail thing to get them sexed cause i dont want to be confused anymore lol...

But if someone would please give me some insite on my lovies that would be great cause i feel like i need to be the therapist for them both right now lol

[shosh]

welcome to spring!!they are probably more randy than usual...
firstly, it is not foolproof to sex a bird using the stance method..as a matter of fact, I'd say it's a silly way to do it and often wrong.

You won't know for sure unless you get them sexed or one drops an egg!!!

I have two lovebirds, one of whom i KNOW is a female from the eggs...the other, I am unsure of. Both feed each other, both nest, both are terribly in love with one another, both mount the other...so I'm thinking two females and since both nest and tuck stuff in their feathers (although the definite female is better at it), both are cage aggressive so I'm thinking I'm right. But I will also probably do the DNA test...

As for the on/off love-in...don't think you have to worry.....mine do the same thing every once in a while. Best buds one minute, snuggling and preening each other and then the crazy beak fight. Unless you really notice a problem, I think they are just being lovebirds.

And that beeping sound is funny, isn't it? I also call it the beeping sound.

[LovingPrettyBird]

Ok well thats a lift off of my shoulders LOL i thought i was really going to have to give a talk to them haha

No eggs have been dropped yet and i did see peachy mount on raz for the first time this morning but as you said i kno that females and females can act like they are males...

I have another question too...Do they know how to make a nest off the bat??? Cause raz is always ripping paper and tucking it in her feathers but i never see her go to the nest...they both do go in there but they usually fight when they are in there LOL and ill take a peek once in awhile to see if anything is in there and Raz will start to freak out but nothing will be in the nest except empty millets...so i dont know if its just because they are beginners or what. I do see peachy pick up some paper and then go near the nest but he always lets it drop out of his mouth then go eat LOL...

Im not really trying to breed them but if it happens im ok with it so i do have all the "needs" that the birds need to do so if it were to happen...I've been reading for months on lovebirds and their habits and asking around to other breeders so if it does happen...im ready!...

Any other advice would help tho!

And the beeping sound is funny but its just so loud sometimes LOL

[shosh]

I don't want my guys to breed ( in case they are male/female)....and you might want to double think that....babies are a huge responsibility and if your guys are young, they may not know how to behave as parents and it can fall on your shoulders to hand feed.
Frankly, I also don't want to try and find homes for babies and I figure that it won't just happen once...it'll happen again and again and again.

What I do when they start to shred is just let them but I clean it up often. I DO NOT provide a nesting box. Now, to be honest, I have heard that if you don't want them to breed, you shouldn't provide shredding material but when I tried that, they started to line the "nest"( the cage bottom) with their OWN feathers so I didn't think that was a good thing at all. As for the nesting box, believe me, they don't need it to try and find a place to lay. I've had eggs in the weirdest places...food dishes, behind my bedroom bureau..recently, they've been making a nest on my bed behind the throw pillows!!!

Naughty birds....At any rate, I've tried most everything to get them to stop the nesting thing but not really successful. So, I put the grate back on the bottom of their cage and just try and keep them off guard as much as possible. ( lovebirds ARE tenacious little devils).

If you don't want them to breed, please take away the box. They'll lay irrespective but it won't be so easy and you aren't depriving them but not giving them the box...you are actually encouraging them which probably isn't a good thing. I had one session in January where they spent weeks laying on their eggs on the floor of the cage....under the newspaper. Since then, there has been a few eggs but they haven't shown any interest in laying on them.

by the way, please make sure that you have a cuttlebone ( extra calcium) in the cage for your girl at this time....if they do egg lay, it can deplete them of calcium and can cause problems.