Taming - Lovebirds vs. Parakeets

[Xanthus]

Talked to a DNA tech today - turns out no labs in the US (or most places) do relation testing for birds anymore. Supposedly, it's cost-prohibitive (anotherwords they have to charge too much and don't make enough profit off it). There are only 2 labs left that do it. 1 in Canada and 1 in Italy.

I called the one in Canada:

HealthGene
1-877-371-1551

They charge $ 64 USD a sample for relation testing. IIRC, it takes 4 weeks to proccess. Also, they test can only be done with whole blood, not blood cards or feather. So you have to send in vials.

This being both expensive and complex to do - I'm going to try to track down the breeder through Petsmart if I can. Maybe they'll know if the 2 birds were siblings or not.

[Xanthus]

Had some good luck with new foods today, sorta. :/

I tried putting a fresh, opened walnut as well as some boiled sweet corn in their food bowl. They took all the peices of walnut out of one half of the shell and then played soccer with the empty shell all over the bottom of the cage. :

They did seem to try to eat the corn, they'd pick it up, chew on it, lick it all over...but they couldn't seem to get the hang of eating it and would eventually drop it. They tried a few times, but then they decided the corn worked a lot better for throwing at each other. :

So, at least they're TRYING new foods. :

In any case, the training's still going very well. The older bird's really starting to get the hang of the step up command. I don't think he really LIKES doing it yet, but he knows what I want. He'll at least put one foot my my finger and usually hops on with both feet - but only for a second. I've been making sure to say "Down" every time he leaves my finger though. He's also almost completely stopped biting, he'll eat from my hand without hesitation and will even let me pet his wings and neck.

Upon closer inspection, it looks like he still does have a very small amount of black stippling down the side of his beak, like the other. So that means they're still close together in age.

The younger bird is still wary of my hands, though she doesn't really seem angry or scared of them anymore - just distrustful. She now CALMLY avoids me, and doesn't even yell at me much anymore. Which is an improvement I think.

They's both more than happy to eat treats from my hand (millet preferrably) and they'll both play along with me with their hanging bell toy, which is very cute.

They have been napping a lot. They seem to only have energy in short spurts. Like they play and roughouse with each other and eat and scurry about the cage like little bolts of blue energy for about 20min to an hour - then they nap on and off for an hour - though the older one still chirps and sings to himself in his sleep. :

The older bird seems like he's trying to establish dominance. He takes food from the other bird, pushes him off perches and bites his ankles - not hard, just playfully almost. Though, they're both trying to get each other to feed them - which usually devolves into wrestling. And they're sweet to each other at times, too, preening each other and snuggling up together to sleep.

[Xanthus]

Ok, called Petsmart, talked to the manager. He said they get their birds from "Preferred Pets" in Destin, FL. I found a Preferred Pets listed in Milton, FL. I also found this article:

Large-scale "parrot mill" breeding operations, such as Kaytee Preferred Birds,* which supplies PETsMART, are now producing thousands of chicks each year, with a goal of producing even more! They have a network of breeders that mass-produce both parent-raised and hand-fed birds, which are transferred to hand-feeding facilities and stores at an early age. While it is in the company's best interest to raise these birds in relatively clean, regulated, disease-free facilities, it is next to impossible to properly, personally socialize and educate baby parrots under such assembly line, parent-free production breeding conditions. To make matters worse, when these birds are sold through warehouse pet stores like PETsMART and PETCO, buyers rarely receive quality products or solid care advice from the inexperienced, transient staff often employed at these stores. In addition, the display and marketing of gentle, beautiful, juvenile birds in pet stores leads to many being purchased on impulse, and a parrot purchased on impulse without a foundation of education rarely finds a lifelong home.

Now, with not much hope of finding my answers, I called one of 2 numbers they had listed. Turns out it's the number for the maintenance guy's house!

Needless to say he was a bit surprised to be getting information calls. But he was nice enough to field my inane questions, nonetheless.

He said that Preferred Birds doesn't breed the smaller birds, they get them in large batches from multiple outside breeders, then distribute those batches to Petsmart locations. He also said that they don't really keep any records on the smaller birds, either.

So, my educated guess is that if these 2 birds came randomly from a large batch of birds, then the chances that they're 2 birds from the same clutch from the same breeder is rather slim. Also considering that they don't appear to be the same age. One looks a couple months older than the other.

If their DNA comes back as being Male & Female AND I decide to breed them in the future, I may decide to get them relation tested, but as it is now, I doubt they're brother and sister. So, I'm not incredibly worries about it. Heck, I don't even know if they're male & female. Though, I have my guesses.

[Kathryn]

hmmmmm
Based on your attempts at gaining the factual information for assessing sibling relationship, I'd probably come to the same conclusion.

I'm thankful both birds have come to live with an owner who is willing to care about that relationship.

[Xanthus]

Ok, I was trying the other day to get them to eat corn, but they seemed to have problems with it, and I tried carrots - but the pieces were too big I think.

So today I finely chopped some:

• Banana
• Apple
• Green Bell Pepper
• Carrot
• Sweet Corn
• Fresh Broccoli
• Celery

And put it in a spare food bowl and sprinkled it with some of their normal seed mixture and shook it up a little to coat it with seeds.

Then, I took out their normal food and put the fruit/veggie salad in in the same spot, as on the surface it looked like their normal food. (Mwuaahahahh!!! [I'm devious] )

And I was shocked. They absolutely DEVOURED it. The food dish was half full, maybe a little more. After about 3 hours, I can see the bottom of the bin.

I don't even know where they put it all. There's a small amount on the bottom of the cage, and 1 peice of broccoli they threw at the cat - but the rest is gone. They'd go over and stick their heads in and munch on the mix for 5 minutes at a time, barely coming up for air!

I'm just in absolute wonderment - where the heck did they put all that food??!

[Janie]

That is just great!!!! : There is nothing better than seeing your lovebirds eat something that's good for them!!!

[bellarains]

Wonderful. I am so glad they are eating well. There is something to be said for "presentation", and it sounds like you presented it just right

[Xanthus]

Hehe:

"We've replaced these Lovebirds' normal seed mixture with seed coated fruits and vegetables - let's see if they notice!" :P

[Z28Taxman]

I'm just in absolute wonderment - where the heck did they put all that food??!

I ask Ditto that question every night. While we watch tv on the couch at night he'll eat at least 2 avi-cake squares and a nutriberry or 2 that he brings from the cage to my hand. I have no Idea how he stuffs that much in that little body. :