True Socialization Starts the Week Babies Wean

[trueloveaviary]

True socialization starts the week babies are weaned. All hand-feeding does is to get birds not scared of people. That’s why some hand-fed birds bite harder than parent-raised birds and most parent-raised birds will flight instead of fight. All throughout the hand-feeding process, I see chicks’ personalities change week by week. We thought Frodo, the oldest Hobbit, was a girl until he turned 6 weeks old, because “she” was so mellow. Then he became the most joyous flighter and had a very playful personality. Pippin, the youngest, was a very hyper and needy baby along with his sister Merry, but both were pretty mellow and cuddly right after they weaned. Merry, the last Hobbit we have for adoption, is a complete jewel now; I would dare to say the perfect lovebird (who would have known? Merry was the one who would scream every 30 minutes throughout the night when I had the babies with me on business trips. The lack of sleep made me very sick for a couple of weeks, but it was worth it now.) And Sam, well he has always been the perfect son! He had that sweet, playful, outgoing personality ever since he was 2 weeks old. He first stepped-up at only 2.5 weeks old! If Sam were a High School teenager, he would be the popular quarterback with the hot girlfriend and showed respect to his family and teachers. Anyways, my point is that the most important time to socialize a baby birdie is the week they wean. That is when they develop their true personalities. Most all baby birdies are sweet when you are hand-feeding them; they need you for food. But after they have learned to completely eat on their own, you need to teach them that they now need to seek out your love. A hand-fed baby means that a person hand-fed formula to a bird, a well-socialized baby means that a person “hand-fed” love to a bird.

~Rodney

[wilsta]

trueloveaviary said:

I had the babies with me on business trips.
~Rodney

What a dedicated father! Thanks for sharing Rodney.

[robert]

Thanks Rodney for this. I just wish all Lovebird People who breed for the companion market were as committed as you. I might be showing my ignorance.,but I thought with Lovebirds females are far more likely to be more aggressive.You mention above ( we thought Frodo was a girl....because "she" was so mellow.)I thought that would more likely mean the Lovie was a boy. best Robert and Angel

[trueloveaviary]

Ah yes, another great debate. When I first got into lovebirds, I was told if you want a pet, make sure it is a boy. The first lovebird Tamara and I did get was BeBe, who was a boy. Since I knew that lovebirds were big birds in small bodies, I trained him like he was an amazon or cockatoo. I established a constant routine with him every day including teaching the “up” and “down” command. Tamara and I also started taking him everywhere we could take him so we could socialize him to other people. We expect him to be a good boy and he knows it. Our pet sitters love to keep him.

When we got our females Evee, our Dutch Blue, and our Angel, the Creamino, we expected no less from them than what we expected from BeBe. So now, they are just as sweet as him; and both of them are mature. We do not supply anything that resembles a nest box, their sleeping tents are ok though because they have two openings, they have a constant bedtime at 7:30 pm in which we cover them so the longer hours of the day won’t encourage them to breed, and the most important: we establish a constant routine like we did with BeBe. (Also, we have established this relationship with our breeders: Dewey and Sierra. That is how we are able to get such great videos and pictures. I can hold Mommy Sierra while she is feeding her babies at the same time!)

Breaking the lovebird stereotype, that is why Tamara and I are here. If a child wants to hold and pet a lovebird, we do not give them our boy BeBe, we give them our girl, Angel. It’s all in how you raise them. Positive environment equals positive bird; no matter the sex or species. I was told that male amazons could not be suitable pets also, but my male Orange-winged Amazon was the most perfect animal who ever walked the planet (but that’s another story.) As I am typing this, Dewey and Sierra are calling out to me and wanting to play and there are four lovebirds trying to climb up my legs to get to me. And guess what, three out of the four are females!

Concerning well-socialized baby lovebirds, we have found out that our males are the playful, chew up everything, great flyers type, and the females are the snuggle buddies and crying for attention type (Angel is now under my chin snuggling with me and she still whines to this day when I have to get her off me and she is not ready to go.) Now when it comes to the flock, the females are dominant. Angel, our youngest lovebird, is the dominant one in the flock, even over her mom, Sierra. But she is the first that people pick up and hold when they come into our home.

~Rodney

[robert]

Thankyou again for sending this. Very few breeders properly socialize their lovebirds.Because of the lack of socialization of these birds, the so-called evidence people use in regard to Lovebirds is faulty. Thankyou for helping to break the sterotype . best Robert and Angel

[trueloveaviary]

Any time!

[robert]

great material here on socialization. from Robert and Angel