Lovebird don't want to eat fruit/vegetables

Hi all,

i recently acquired a tammed lovebird (feed by hand), received it about 4 days ago.

Can see a picture of Sky(walker) here: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet I really don't know if its a he/she so Sky is generic. He is very docile and is getting pretty well with me and my girlfriend.

Now i have some concerns, is it normal for him to bite? not to harm, but small bites on hands and everything, means that he is hungry? I've read that i can give a not harsh "no" or twist gently my hand so he understands that that is not okay.

I've tried to give him apple and carrots. Tried full slice and even cut in very small pieces. No interest from him. tried to mix some ration but he eats the seeds and leaves the rest.

Today tried a new thing, take out the food from his cage for about 6h and try to give him fruit to see if hes hungry it he tries, but with no sucess. Is he too young? He seems to be hungry because he bites everything, but refuses to eat fruit.

Another question, is it normal for him to sleep a lot? even during the day? he likes to get together with us on the shoulder/neck and kind of falls asleep.

I have on his cage a thing/calcium "stone" for him to "grind" his beak, will he learn how to do it by instinct?

Should i make a "soup" with apple, carrots, peppers and nuts and give him?

Sorry for having so many questions, but i only found general answers online.

thank you

He is a lovely little guy. The black on his beak will go as he gets older, so I guess he is about 12 - 14 weeks old.

Some lovebirds love fruit and vegetables and others arent interested at all. At his age, I'd be trying egg and biscuit mix and I'd find out from the breeder what he was eating. I'd be giving him a small parrot mix of seed, and put a little vitamin powder in his water because they need their nutrients when they are young and weaning.

With the fresh food, mine love corn (it is fattening, so not too much) and peas the most. Lovebirds are like kids so they will go for the treats first, which is why our vet recommends mainly seed with the vitamin powder in their water. They love sunflower seeds but they are fattening too, so limit them.

Ours also get some safe wild flowers, grass seed, and some green veggies. Capsicums (peppers) and especially their seeds are a big treat and really good for them. There are plenty of resources that say what not to feed them, so check them before trying anything new. Strangely enough, they love a bit of meat as well, so I let them nibble on a lamb cutlet bone every so often.

With the lovie we got when she very young (still have her about 11 years later) it was common for her to crawl under our shirts and lie down and go to sleep. They get more active as they get older, and that is when they are more likely to fly off when they hear another bird, so be careful of that.

With the biting everything, that is just exploring I think. They dont have hands, after all. But lovies bite hard and ever so often they might latch on to your lip and give it a hell of a chomp (especially once they go through puberty) so you might have some blood in your relationship though they do settle down. Generally speaking, hens bite harder than boys. It is really hard to tell the sex, I still struggle even when I feel the pubic bone (girls apart, boys together) so I currently have a pair of very confused hens that I thought were a boy and girl, though what I notice is that the hens waddle a bit more whereas the boys walk with their legs together.

He will probably get on to the calcium stone sooner of later. I use a calcium perch which is handy. Ours never took to cuttlefish until recently.

Have fun!

Should i start trainning him now or wait to be older?

How much time untill he starts to recognize his name?

Do you boil the egg first?

also, i think he/she doesn't like much the water supplier he got in his cage, so i've tried to give him water in a bowl, he immediately drank a little but swimming inside and took a bath, i've tried to repeat the experience but he doesn't seem interested anymore.

do they now they need to take a bath, meaning, they will bath by themselves regulary or i have to force them?

hmmmm...take it slowly and spend lots of time with him. The egg and biscuit mix is a powder you get from the pet store, but my birds love a bit of boiled egg or omlette (tamagoyaki is their favorite, if you know japanese food) but it is a treat for them or something I give them if I am worried about them losing weight.

Kiki (our senior hen) recognises her name. I'm not sure about the other ones. The best training is "step up" where you get them to step onto your finger. Do it often, check youtube videos of it. Essentially the birds get used to doing what you want.

I give ours water in a bowl with a bit of vitamin powder in it. Bathing is good but dont force anything with birds because it can break their trust and it is hard to get it back. Ours will bathe a lot sometimes, then not at all over a few weeks, so dont worry. You can give them a little spray with a water bottle, but sometimes it scares them a bit and in fact spraying with a water bottle is sometimes used as a deterrent to them biting.

Just bear in mind that when they go through puberty their behaviour can change quite a bit and they do get nippy. When that happens, dont make a fuss and be very gentle with them because they dont understand smacks etc. The more comfortable they are with you the more likely they will see themselves as your equal, and that means a bigger chance of getting bitten. Our behaviourist says not to let them sit on your shoulder for that reason, but that is easier said than done.

Another good way to trick veg resistant birdies is baking birdie bread using puréed veggies and fruits. Some people use baby food as well. There are tons of easy and healthy recipes online.

I have the same problem. My lovebird will only eat pearl millet, spray millet, and sunflower seeds. She will not even eat other nuts or seeds. She will not eat rowdy bush pellets. I have tried all the usual tricks.

The only thing that works at all: I pressure cook sweet potatoes, then cut them into small pieces and freeze them. In the morning, I microwave a small piece and roll it in pearl millet. When she tries to eat the pearl millet, she has to eat some sweet potato.

This barely works. She resists the sweet potato as much as she can. She has to be very hungry to touch it at all.

Trying to get this bird to eat anything other than millet, or sunflower seeds, is a very frustrating process.

If that's right, you might think about adding vitamins to her water, Lovebirds are a bit notorious for going fine until 6 or 7 and then just dying from vitamin deficiency. It happened to one of my first birds, and it was a massive shock because there are very few clues that there is a problem until it is too late.

But our vet says that the best diet for lovebirds is the small parrot seed, and vitamin water (including in their bath water). He says that in the wild they eat dozens of things and get various trace elements etc from them, whereas in captivity we are giving them a limited amount of things and they are like kids and only eat the ones they like, so they arent getting the range of vitamins we need.

So his theory is that giving them a lot of other things just stops them from eating the seed and the vitamin water that they need, and is doing more harm than good (most people wont agree, but he is pretty eminent). So essentially ours (including our 11 year old hen) are on a small parrot seed (really good quality stuff, you want something that will sprout in a few days if you soak it and without dust), water that I put a vitamin powder in, with treats being bits of apple and sometimes chop that I make for the eckies, or brown rice etc. And I'll let them nibble a chop bone or chicken wing etc for a treat, too.

> If that's right, you might think about adding vitamins to her water


I do that as well. Thing is, the vitamins are so diluted, I am still afraid that she does not get enough.

I suspect that lovebirds have to be taught to eat right when they are very young. Once they are a few years old, it is very difficult to change their diets.