(This is what the babies will look like when they get their adult plumage)
And Dad ("Peaches") is a Dutch Blue:
They have a sibling ("Yellow" or "Amarillo") that is a Lutino (yellow with a peach face) that is not for sale:
This trio will be weaned and ready for new homes by the second week of February, Just in time for Valentines Day!
(We went to Springfield and visited several pet stores this past weekend. While we did not find any Love Birds we did find that Cockatiels have doubled in price since we purchased our baby 14 years ago, from $75 to $150 and parakeets have gone from $10 to $25. I have looked extensively online to come up with a reasonable price for our babies and have found that the lowest in parent raised was $50 and they can go on up to $250 and beyond for hand raised. For that reason we feel that these parent raised babies are a good value at $75. In the future our hand raised babies which will be pulled from the nest at about 3.5 weeks old to be fed by us up to 7 times a day will be $125 to $150 each. There will be a lot of time invested in them.)
If you are new to Love Birds and/or would like to know some of their requirements you can visit this website I have found very informative:
Ingredients to a Loving Love Bird ~
http://www.mresource.com/Birds/Lb_book.htm
From what I have read, if you would like to hand tame a baby it takes 15 minutes per day to accomplish this task. Just handle them for that amount of time every day and they will be easily handled by you. I suggest you have a bird or butterfly net available and make sure to take your baby to a small room where you can close the curtains and doors so it doesn't fly into a window etc. They started flying very well a couple of weeks ago and we are going to leave it up to their owners as far as wing clipping goes.
As far as feeding goes... They absolutely adore apples, with broccoli and grapes coming in a close second. We get their seed at All-Pet in Mountain Home. It is the L'Avian Plus Cockatiel Food which is also perfect for Love Birds. They eat up cuttle bones faster than the cockatiels and budgies that we have had in the past. So, I find it a good idea to have extra on hand. As well as spray millet.
The cage they are currently in is: 25H x 13.5D x 23W. They require a nesting box to sleep in. Ours are trained to drink out of an 8 oz water bottle (like the ones for hamsters). We put their apple and other fresh fruit and veggie treats on bamboo skewers which they enjoy shredding after they eat their treat. It is a very good idea to keep them active in natural beak behaviors (like shredding and climbing) so they do not become bored and start feather picking.
If you are interested in one of our babies please call us at 417-284-3485. We will be happy to deliver the baby to Mountain Home, Lakeview, West Plains and Gainesville areas. If you require further pictures please let me know.
Interesting bruising. This is a 48 hrs + after the fact. The swelling in the toe has gone down a lot and look at how that bruise migrated. Only the pinkie toe actully hurts and is still quite a bit red and swollen. A lighter bruise goes down in a semi circle toward the ankle along the outside of my foot as well.
