Lovebird Question?

Question

I have one dutch blue lovebird who I am 98% sure is male. I've had him for almost 3 years now. He needs more attention than I can give him and am considering buying him a mate.
Questions:
If I buy a second bird does it have to be a female?
(I don't want to breed either lovebird)
Does it have to be the same type of lovebird he is?
Does it have to be around the same age?

I saw a Black Masked lovebird at a petshop who is smaller and younger than my Dutch Blue, I'm worried that if I bring that bird home and my original bird hates him I'm going to be stuck with 2 birds that I can't spend enough time with or worse, a dead bird.

Thank you and I will choose a Best Answer.

Answer 1

Well, here is issue number one. No matter what, you need to quarantine your new bird in a different part of the house for at least a month. There are several bird diseases that are airborne and very serious for birds and you are risking your original bird's health if you don't do this. Quarantine requires that the new bird have their OWN cage in a different part of the house. Take care of the new bird last every day so you aren't carrying germs back to your first bird.

So, you will need a second cage. After quarantine and after getting to know each other you may eventually be able to keep them together. If not, if it never works out, you have two birds in their own cages and all is peachy. You can at least put the birds' cages near each other so they have company during the day.

Now, you don't have to have a male and female together. Two males or two females can get along. However, keep in mind that female lovies are much more aggressive than males and more likely to kill/injure another bird. At three years of age if your bird has not laid eggs, spent a lot of time chewing paper and tucking it into its rump, and being cage protective, it is probably a male. However, without a DNA blood test you cannot be sure. The problem is that unless the bird you buy has been DNA sexed (pet stores never pay for this on birds priced as low as a lovie) you can't be sure what gender it is. This means that you are throwing two birds together and they might well be a male/female pair capable of breeeding.

Now, the real problem is that you DO NOT want to be breeding peach face and black masks with each other. They are two different species of lovebird. They can interbreed, however, and produce a hybrid. The hybirds can be healthy and be great pets but hybridization is frowned upon in aviculture. We cannot import any more parrots into the US due to federal laws. This means whatever birds we have in the US is all we have to work with. If we are mixing up the species and other people end up breeding them the gene pool is getting messed up and eventually there may be no more peach face lovies or black masked lovies. There might end up being just one hybrid mix. For this reason, I would discourage you from housing lovebirds of different species together unless they have both been DNA sexed.

So, the short answer is that no, it does not have to be the same sex and being the same age is not too important, either. The birds should be the same species unless you have had them sexed and are sure they cannot breed.

Answer 2

I am afraid it is the chance you will have to take. However in time they will get use to each other. I would just keep an eye out on them and see how they do together.

Answer 3

You might want it around the same age. That's about it. The rest is up tp you!!