Animals

Lovebirds are delightful little parrots that have been kept as pets for over 100 years! There are 9 species of these colorful, stocky little birds. There is also a wide variety of colorful mutations that have been developed within these species in captive bred lovebirds.

Lovebirds are pint-sized bundles of joy. They have the full personality of parrots while being easy to house because of their size. Lovebirds are little clowns, playing for hours at a time. They love to hang from toys, spin them around, and dance on your shoulder. Watch out for your buttons! They love to pull them off your shirts! They love to snuggle and preen. Many people believe lovebirds must be kept in pairs. This is simply not true. A single lovebird makes a better pet because it bonds to you rather than to another lovebird.

It is important to realize that while lovebirds are a small parrot, they have the intelligence and abilities of some of the largest parrots. They can amaze you with their ability to escape their own cages (I have to put clips on the cage doors to keep them in, and sometimes they figure out how to open those!), they will sometimes try to become the little bosses of the household (hence, the same type of gentle dominance training used for larger parrots should be used with lovebirds), and they can learn to mimic sounds and speech on occasion.

Lovebirds are lively flyers and climbers, and as pets they are enjoyed for these antics as much as they are enjoyed for their beauty and their affectionate displays to their mate.The most popular and readily available species are the Peach-faced Lovebird, the Fishcher’s Lovebird, and the Masked Lovebird.