BreedingThe time may come when you and nature decide it’s time for your Love Birds to breed. If possible, provide a group opportunity for birds to choose their own mates. One male, plus one female, does not necessarily equal a breeding pair.
In the autumn, provide a nest box measuring 6"x 6"x10", nesting materials, some privacy, and stand back. The birds attack the nesting materials, shredding them into strips softened by chewing or soaking in water. Materials to provide include: palm fronds, newspaper, dried grasses and straw. Whatever you use should be fibrous and uncontaminated by insecticides or pesticides. The Love Birds will stuff the box with these materials, forming a tunnel through it to a cave-like opening.
The hen typically lays 4 to 6 eggs and incubates the eggs for 21-24 days. If your pair lays 8 or more eggs, and incubates too long, congratulations, you have paired up two hens! In a true pair, the cock helps to incubate, bu tspends much of his time guarding the nest box entrance.
When the eggs hatch, both parents feed the young. Provide foods that are easy for the parents to digest, such as dry high-protien baby cereal, oat groats, lukewarm oatmeal, or nestling food. The babies fledge in five to six weeks and the parents continue to care for the young until they are weaned two weeks later.
If your birds allow the eggs to cool, or the young to die, be understanding. Parenthood is a shock to the bird with no prior experience to draw upon. By the second or third clutch, they should be able to care for their young. While love birds will, as a rule, rest themselves, limit pairs to two, possibly three clutches of young per year. Parenthood is hard on a bird.
