my love bird gracie, who i think is actually a male i think, is acting strange. he's become obsessed with my rosella ruby. they're caged seperately but are out together for a fly. gracie follows ruby everywhere, and yesterday gracie was feeding ruby! they're from different continents so didn't think they'd act like that. ruby at first was getting fed up with gracie following her but seems to be warming up to him.
i'm now letting them out for a fly seperately but when gracie is out he just sits on ruby's cage and twitters to her.
does anyone know if lovebirds fall for other species, should i get gracie a mate of her own kind? he's about a year old.
maybe he was so over protective of ruby that serena (budgie) got to close and that caused gracie to attack.
i'm guessing gracie has sexually matured now cos she humps her cozy hut almost daily!

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Definitely sounds like "Gracie" might be a male. All the lovebirds I've owned have unfortunately been female and only one I've owned actively *ahem* humped and she was a proven female.

But I'd say 9/10 lovebirds who do that are indeed male.

No matter what species of parrot or where they are from, they all have the instinct to feed a bird they're starting to bond with or are bonded to

Sounds like a male to me as well!!!

To mau5, not just feeding birds when they bond. My macaw feeds the dogs and tries to feed me too... its kinda nasty...lol

i tried feeling gracies pelvic bone and my index finger fits in (i have quite slim hands) so still not 100% on her sex. do you think i should get him another lovebird friend? he's on his own in the cage at the mo but doesn't seem to bothered, just humps his hut alot LOL

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Is gracie tame or not? If he/she is tame, I would not suggest getting a mate cause he/she would no longer be tamed once it bonds with another lovebird. They go wild pretty easily! The one I handfed personally got a mate and they started the mating process and that was the last of it. I could never handle him again.

he's not really tame, he will step up on your finger or land on your head, but you cant touch him or anything, he steps up on a stick to go back in his cage.

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By getting another one you might not even be able to do what you do with him/her now.

Having two bonded lovebirds and not having them interested or bonded with their owner is a complete Myth...

Here's a video of Skittles and at the time this video was taken, she was with her old cage mate Kiwi, and they were both bonded together (both females). She's been hand tame regardless of who she has bonded with and I can sit with her for HOURS on end with her snuggling my hand or my face:



It all depends on the bird

Like you said mau5, it all depends on the individual bird. For my lovebird it was a no cause he draw blood.... I played with him and held him everyday since the day he was born. I did that for 2 years before I give him a mate. He became very bitey towards me. But I've had some female cockatiels that would allow me to check their eggs with them right there while some come for the kill...lol

I had one bird like that, Kirby, she was apparently "hand raised" and no matter what I did, I was bitten, bruised and bled dry haha.

She even got a hold of a chunk of my neck and I had a "bird hickie" for a good 2 weeks.


I have no doubt Skittles would be protective over any of her eggs (if she were to lay) but would be as snuggly as ever out of a nest box