"Like a bird on a wire . . ."
Larry laid an egg.
That's how it all started for us. We'd had Larry Bird and Diva
for nearly a year when that happened in May of '97. I'd bought them
with birthday money knowing they weren't tame. They were also sold unsexed, but I wasn't planning on breeding them, so that was OK by me.
Diva is the more yellow of the two . . .
In May, I was worried that Larry was sick because "he" was hanging around the bottom of the cage and trying to hide in the corner under a food dish. I knew that wasn't a good sign. Imagine my surprise the next morning when I found that first egg!
That sent me immediately scrambling for information, and I found a few lovebird sites on the internet, as well as checking out every pertinent book I could find from the library. The books were helpful, but not thorough enough. I still had lots of questions. My best info came from The Lovebird Chat at Up-At-Six. And I have to offer special thanks to Linda L. who talked me through that whole first clutch from putting in a nestbox to weaning. The birds might have done just fine without you Linda, but I know I wouldn't have!
Here are pics of two of those first babies at about 6 weeks old. Kiwi is on the left and Love on the right. The last shot is of all three babies (6 eggs were laid and 3 hatched), or at least of their bellies! Little Boy Blue was the name of the third baby. We were in the middle of cage cleaning, with the assistance of "Jake the Wonder Dog". We were also removing them from their parents cage at that time because . . . Larry and Diva had already started laying the next clutch of eggs!
Our "test batch"
as we liked to call them! Interested in more info on our birds or Aviary?
I just loved their vibrant colours and their song. Jim figured Diva must be the female because she was the more vociferous of the two - hence the backwards gender names. Ha! You can bet he's had to eat those words!
Larry is the forward one -
"Pucker up baby!"
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Dipping into the Paintbox . . .
or further adventures in breeding lovebirds!
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