Lovebird Manor

09/08/2024

BlueMoon and Halo are starting to become friends! Blurry video cause I didn't want to get too close and rui. The moment by coming over (if I go over they get distracted and all just vie for my attention ) .though then Twilight ruined the moment anyway by flying into them and breaking up their sweet lil rendezvous

09/03/2024

Part 2 Blue Moon integrating with the flock of Lovebird Manor.

09/02/2024

BLUE MOON (previously Luna) in moving on up in life ! After almost a year (we adopted him last fall) the flock has finally welcomed him into their big cage! We lost poor Pixie a few weeks back and I think it may have something g to do with the dynamics changing within the flock that he was able to step in. I had initially put just Frightful and Twilight with him in HIS cage during a time when Pixie was feeling hormonal and fighting with her sister.. I didn't want the girls nipping at eachother so I separated the girls (and Twilight just came along for the ride with his mate/sister Frightful) so I tried them out with BlueMoon to see if they would get along and be OK in his cage for a week or two while hormones settled down .
And that ended up working out fine. They weren't bestie but there was still no fighting. So a couple weeks ago when Pixie passed away (do not really want to.talk about that..still fresh and raw.. I hatched and raised her here from a chick. I am very bonded to all my babies and her absence is felt hard.. but this post I eant to celebrate Blue Moon getting to join the flock) but so when she passed there was an "opening" let's say in the big cage... Halo, who was mated/bonded to Pixie (he's also the daddybird of all 3 of the siblings) has been grieving and lonely.. I know he will not get over his grief quickly but I figured it could help to have a friend and some distraction. Frightful and Twilight are of course bonded with eachother and don't always give him much attention.. so I decided to try my luck and see if Blue Moon would be able to integrate with the flock .. and he's been doing well . My HOPE is that he and Halo can form some sort of bond as time goes on but for now at least just for them all to get some enrichment from eachothers company. I have AlWays felt bad about BlueMoon being alone in his own cage while the rest of the family flock all get to play together and have a nice family unit.. I hated seeing him left out but everytime I put him in the big cage the girls (Pixie and Frightful)would team up and chase him around.. now that it's just one naughty girl Frightful she does not seem as bold lol .
So yes.. I am sad as to how this came about..if Pixie was still here this likely would not have happened but there was nothing I could do for Pixie .. so I'd like to see the silver lining.. that I CAN make Blue Moons life better by giving him a flock family of birdies who will hopefully become his friends.. and hopefully also help Halo recover from His grief. (Halo has only been in "heteros*xual relationships" so far lol so not sure if he will bond to another male bird. If it doesn't work out with Blue I may have to get him another female but I'm holding off right now because that would leave Blue still alone and then I'd have to get HIM another friend too so He's not alone.. and having an even number right now I'd really rather not have to take on 2 more birds if I can help it . I LOvE birds but I also love being g able to give each of the. Individual attention which is harder the more you have. I love that I have a loving bond with each and every bird here and it's a lot of work and patience to build and maintain that bond .. the more you have the more your time is spread thin between them (and I have 4 other animals as well - a dog, cat, and 2 dwarf goats- besides the birdies too who need their own love and care and attention as well.
So we are giving them all time to get to know ow eachother . I am happy no body is fighting and it was a rather smooth integration.. and Blue Does at least seem happier in the big cage.. even if he gets a little scared of his flockmates sometimes and runs away from them, overall he has been moving around the cage and playing more and chirping happily and trying to interact with his the flock a bit here and there.
It's definitely an upgrade for hi. And THIS is what I was hoping for from the time I agreed to take him in the first place. I hoped this is what I could give him. I know ew it was possible and I had the means to provide it.
Just needed the whole flocks cooperation to make him feel welcome

08/04/2024

Life with crazy lil parrots, ya'll lol heres a couple videos of the birbs today... the girls are feeling hormonal and bickering nonstop. I had to separate them! Was going to put Frightful (with her brother/mate Twilight) in the travel cage but ended up putting them in Blue-Moon (my bird who is usually single) 's cage . He is usually alone in his own cage because they bicker with him more often but they seem to be getting along ok.. Not loving eachother but not fighting either, just all minding their business which is all you can hope for sometimes lol. so he has some company for a little while until the girls settle down and stop fighting. (Mostly Frightful going after Pixie while Pixie tries to mind her business and make a nest ... but then Pixie ultimately also gets pi**ed at her sister disturbing her nest-making process! Oy vey! ) Anyway.. maybe good for BlueMoon to have a little bit of company this week even if they dont all love eachother, its still socialization and someone to talk to (and he does usually get along with Twilight ok- the males are usually chill and rarely fight. I just have to watch over that cage now still to make sure THEY dont fight but its going better with Frightful and Twilight in with him than Frightful with Pixie. The dynamic of not having 2 females together while they are broody and moody is better. The males rarely cause trouble (and its mostly Frightful causing all the ruckus! She thinks she is ALPHA BIRD and wants to let everyone know it. She is a sweet birdy but she has always been like this as far as thinking she is top dog.. Even when she was a baby she used to bully her younger siblings. She let them ALL know from the start that she was boss! )
I do still have the travel cage that I set up incase they start bickering with Mr. Blue-Moon but i'd rather not have my entire living room full of cages. I only have to separate them just until they are done being hormonal. They are a family and USUALLY get along most of the time. Anyway, they do all seem less moody after letting them out to fly around the house this morning... I was trying to distract them but realized while they were out flying that Pixie also has a little bite on her toe from her sister (Frightful) so I dont want to put the girls back together just yet.
vid 1 is the girls when i caught them fighting in the cage and vid 2 is letting them out to play to distract them from bickering

1. https://youtu.be/9j4vkTFtO2k?si=-rzkEg_u_u_wQOWp
and 2. https://youtu.be/mLZZY1FowJ4?si=vBkdSklw4FVlDd8U

06/08/2024

Safe to say the birbs liked their new toy lol. (Love is destruction in the life of a parrot ;) lol)

02/22/2024

'The babies' (Twilight and PixieStardust) (And "Elvira", previously 'Midnight', now elvira at her new home) all turn TWO (2) years old this month! Frightful (the slightly larger dark olive green colored one) , their big sister, is pictured here too... she's a few months older , but same parents.. turned 2 in November. So they're all finally 2 now! Kept 3 of the babies here, happy and thriving

10/15/2023

10/15/2023

BlueMoon Luna getting to know Twilight, Frightful and Halo

08/20/2023

Lovebird Parrot Enrichment with fresh picked Bamboo Grass! ...
and lots of love, attention, and scritches from their mama (me)

In this video I give some attention to my 4 handraised peach-face lovebirds (Halo, Frightful, Pixie-Stardust, and Twilight) I went on a walk with my dog and...

04/11/2023

I Fiiiinally got around to editting this video. This is a video from our clutch last spring, showing how we find out what genders our baby birds are.. . I'm always curious myself and the new prospective homes the babies go off to always like to know so they can give their baby a name that fits their gender :) Its also good to know if you have a male or female since hormones can come into play a lot especially with female lovebirds. Females sometimes need different diets and extra care to manage their hormones so its always good to know. I dont mind spending the extra money to find out so that my babies can get the best care and end up in the right home (some may not be prepared to deal with a fiesty hormonal girl, many prefer males, though it can definitely just be down to personality. I have one female who gets very nippy when hormonal and another who does not and has never bit me at all, so personality matters too, but hormones definitely can play a big part .
Enjoy watching this video starring Frightful, Midnight (now Elvira), Stardust, Moonshine, and Twilight.

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW and GUESS WHAT Gender the babies will be!!!?!?!I am a small hobby lovebird breeder and this is How I order from IQbirdtesting/ (IQ ...

08/27/2022

Party with the whole flock (on my head) this morning lol...
https://youtu.be/qly4sG6jevk Check out the video of what its like to live with a the lil flock of these silly birbs when the Lovebird Manor lovebirbs all come out for "fly-time"
(.... or should I say curfluffle-around-on-mommy's-head- time)

Haha, I just filmed this quick this morning... Im a photographer and I was trying to edit photos on my computer... but I had let my flock of peachface lovebi...

07/12/2022

Made a garden salad for myself for dinner and of course the birds get one too. Pretty much all the same ingredients as far as veggies in theirs. I take the scraps from my salad like the ends of the carrots, tops of radishes (the radish greens with a bit of the radish itself attached from where I cut it) , a bit of the peppers from the pepper core with pepper seeds, and then some spinach and swiss chard greens. I did not give them the nuts and cranberry because I think the cranberry has added sugars and the nuts... They just already eat enough nuts and seeds in their seed bowl for a snack (birds main diet is roudybush pellets but they do get a bit of seed as well) so they don't really need more fatty oily nuts. I just like to add them into my OWN salad to make it more like a meal and because I personally Dont eat nuts all the time lol. But yes it's always fun to share a healthy meal with your birds.. anytime you make anything with veggies for yourself, see what you have for scraps and or take a little bit extra and make a little birdy bowl. They love it ! Here's a pic of my salad I'm having for dinner right now and also Halo my sweet male "daddy bird" enjoying some of the birdy bowl foraging "salad." All the birds have been going up to get some but Halo got there first and he was also the only birb who would stay put and let me get a decent picture ;) but dont worry, they all share and I'm sure by the time tonight's over the dish will be empty after all 5 of my flock get up there to fill their happy lil beaks.

05/25/2022

Bird life .....whoever said to just ignore them and don't react when they bite obviously never met my hormonal mamabird Nebby lol. About 56 grams of pure evil in a deceptively cute fluffy lil yellow birb disguise! I'm proud of myself for NOT REACTING (just holding my arm still and writhing in pain quietly) to the first five chunks she tore out of my flesh before I screeched at her and pinched her beak closed and shook her off my arm lol.. this bird has NO SHAME. Does not hold back AT ALL. May work for less brutal birds but we are never trying that method again lol 😂 ever! She looks so proud of herself too. She's so lucky that I love her... Like who else would tolerate this abuse lol

05/24/2022

Good morning cuddles with 3 month old PixieStardust . She is such a little sweetheart. She is more shy and not as outgoing especially with strangers but she absolutely loves her mommy.

05/20/2022

05/08/2022

On nice days we push the cage over a couple feet in front of the big slider door ...when it starts getting really nice and warm in the summer we can wheel it right out all the way into the porch. The birds love the sunshine and bit of breeze; fresh air and talking to the other birds outside.

04/29/2022

04/01/2022

Did a lil shopping today to put together some care packages for the babies.. can't let them leave home without lots of millet to snack on ;) (and of course being able to offer treats will help the bonding experience with their new families). I'll also be filling up some baggies of a bit of their foraging mix (it's a mix of herbs and dried flowers ..it's very affordable at Walmart and they love to pick at it so I definitely recommend picking some up for the babies but I'll be sending them home with a bit of it so you can see what they do with it lol. They kick it around like chickens and forage and have a blast. ;) They will also go with baggies of their regular pellet food that they have been transitioning to and should stay on once they get entirely off the formula.they are down to just morning and evening formula feeds and picking at pellets and millet throughout the day so sad my time with them is coming to a close but I am excited for all their new families and looking forward to eventually hearing about how they settle in. Midnight, Stardust, Moonshine I'm gonna miss you girls!

03/23/2022

Just yesterday I mentioned how the babies were flapping in place and trying to learn how to fly and 'how to bird' ... WELL! today MidnightBlue (the oldest baby) surprised me by flying right up at me while i was mixing their formula ! (obviously she couldnt wait to eat lol) I definitely wasnt expecting that! Im sure Stardust will be next because she has been doing plenty of flapping and kind of using her wings to flap and help her gain momentum while climbing up to my shoulder but not quite flying yet. She's a day younger so wouldn't surprise me if she's flying by tomorrow or the end of the day today. Im just having a proud mama moment over here ... love watching them have their 'firsts'
I wanted to share this with their prospective parents... I didnt get the VERY first flight on camera but this video if from literally 2 seconds later cause dont you know when she did it I had to run and grab my camera and see if I could get her to do it again so I could upload it here for her prospective feather-parent to see. So this vid is her SECOND fly, lol about 2 seconds after her first. And you can notice all of the babies definitely doing a lot of flapping so they will be soon to follow.

03/21/2022

i LOVE the little hoppity-bounce and little wing flaps they do when they eat their formula. Like they are so excited they cant contain themselves lol. I only have a couple more weeks with these guys... they are growing up so so fast and I'm really going to miss them. I try so hard not to get attached but..... yea, I fail. Its really impossible not to with these sweet little girls burrowing into my armpit or chirping in my ear... the way they fall asleep faster when i cup my hand around them (my 6 month old from last clutch, Frightful, still loves that form of cuddling... just hanging on my chest or crook of my neck with my hand cupped around her while she chirps to sleep..._) so to the new homes -- know they really like it if you do that...
they still sleep alot as babies but they are definitely starting to flap and explore more...

"Midnight Blue", The oldest blue baby reminds me a little bit of her mommy (my crazy creamino Nebby) -- she's what I call a "burrow-bird" as she loves to try to burrow into my clothes, squeeze into small spaces etc... i have a feeling she will probably enjoy toilet paper tubes as she gets older like Nebby does (Nebby crawls thru tubes like a mouse lol except hopping and scuttling thru them like a bird instead of crawling and scurrying like an actual mouse) and when shes in her box-nest she hops around in place and kicks her paper bedding around and then smooshes her face down in it and kinda fluffs around like a chicken giving itself a dust bath lol. She is pretty outgoing and curious but not as much of an attention begger. She will burrow up close to you and cuddle but she doesnt get up in your face and beg for attention as much. LOVES cuddles tho and will likely want to climb in your pockets, burrow into your sweater, etc. She's a hoot and a half lol.

"Stardust" the yellow creamino is like a carbon copy mix of my previous babies Phoenix and Frightful.. tho maybe even more outgoing. She's probably the MOST outgoing of the bunch and very much a velcro bird.. First one always jumping and flapping to get at me when I open them up. First one figuring out how to climb all the way up to my shoulder (similar to Frightful-- major shoulder bird) and she is a MAJOR attention-wh0re lol. Cries and cries and cries for attention and cheek rubs and wont go to sleep until i cup her in my hand and shoosh her and give her scritches lol. The crying could possibly get annoying but they also do just cry a lot at this age as they are testing out their voices and trying to learn how to make their adult chirps.

The younger 2 (Twilight and Moonshine) are actually pretty quiet and laid back.. I thought they would get more outgoing with age and they have a little bit but still not to the level of the older 2.. they hang back a bit more (tho Twilight is starting to get in there and fight for his place at the spoon for feeding time) Its actually surpising how quiet Twilight is, probably the most quiet of all of them he doesnt talk that much (which is maybe good cause I'll have FOUR lovebirds now and the rest of them chirp plenty enough for all of them. anyway but this post is getting long ... heres some cute feeding time video of the birds doing that little hoppity hop and flap for their food. so cute!

03/21/2022

Babies are getting moved into a small "adult cage" this morning! They are rounding on 5 to 6 weeks old, pretty much fully feathered and making their own body heat now so no longer in need of the incubator. They've been doing a lot of flapping in place trying to test their wings.. building those wing and chest muscles so they can soonearn to fly... Moving them into an actual cage where they can begin to learn how to climb more (they climb up my clothes fine but climbing bars and navigating perches is another matter) they'll have more room to really flap their wings and figure out how to bird. Plus now they can actually see their parents thru the cage doors and will be able to interact with them thru the bars etc.. which will further help them "learn to bird" by watching parental adult bird behavior. Will also start introducing them to the water bottle and adult food pellets in a bowl this week .. they pick a little bit when I let them out with the parents to forage but the next couple weeks ...between 6 and 8 weeks they should now start transitioning away from the formula.. eating more pellets and reducing formula feedings gradually...until they are ready to go off into the world and meet their new families as fully functional sweet lovely baby Birbs. They look a little freaked out right now to be in this huge open space.. they're used to their cozy dark incubator, but putting the towel over them seemed to help and they will get used to it and eventually enjoy having the space to move around (and EVentuaLLY crave even more space. The cage they are in now is pretty much a travel cage or yea temporary cage for babies or quarantining a bird before you introduce it to a flock etc. You would never use this size cage as a permanent housing setup for them. A full flight cage (like what my adult birds are in) is the recommended size cage for these birds as they need space to really fly !)

03/15/2022

The first video lol..It makes me laugh talking to them ...they so loud but when I talk back they get quiet lol.

03/14/2022

Pajama-time nightly slumber party with baby Frightful..the 5 month old baby from Halo and Nebby's previous clutch. Notice at 5 months she is finally JUST starting to develop her peach/orange visor above her eyes !?it should continue to feather in and become a deeper orange 🍊 over the next few months) she usually comes right out for snuggles but Haha she didn't want to come all the way out of her coconut so I just picked her whole coconut up but then she poked her head out to say hi. Her coconut is her Favorite place to sleep aside from in my sweater... Trust me once I pull down the neck of my sweater for her she will ditch the coconut and climb right in ..we have this bit of cuddle time almost every night and it is great bonding... since she has a lot of energy during the day I don't force her to sit still and cuddle... She will zoom around the room and then land on my head or shoulder for a minute to rest her wings but then she is off again.. at nighttime tho she is a total cuddle bug and that is when we sit and cuddle and really bond... Both are important times tho... Knowing her mom is here both to cuddle and a comfortable no pressure no obligations place to land and rest her weary wings ;) love this sweet baby girl! (And still excited to find out she actually is a girl! Even tho I had a feeling its nice to know for sure!)

03/13/2022

The babies Midnight & Twilight ( the blues) Stardust and Moonshine (the creamino& lutinos).. they had their dinner and then had their first introduction to the foraging playground. I helped them climb a little bit..help them up onto the perches and supervise with loving hands to make sure nobody falls. They had already eaten and aren't onto adult food yet but some of them did explore some of the foraging goodies with their beak, picking things up and nibbling on it etc. Babies are also starting to explore my hands more with their beaks too ( this is NOT biting.. they use their beaks like we would our hands to explore everything. Gentle nibbles are common and absolutely fine even encouraged for them to explore you and get to know you.). Until now it's been mostly me handling them but they are getting to the age where they are now curious about the person who has been feeding and loving and bathing and providing for them all this time and are finally starting to reach out and investigate who actually is this person 🤔😂🦜 anyway here's some video of the babies sleepily foraging. They just ate so they were about ready to pass out but fighting it like a toddler so we gave them something to do and then they passed out in the middle of it 😂

03/10/2022

THE RESULTS ARE IN! GENDER REVEAL on the babies! The oldest is just rounding on 4 weeks old and the youngest a little over 3 weeks. All babies are doing great (and completely back to normal btw after yesterdays scary little tumble) Such sweet darlings I truly do wish I could keep them all