Lovebirds Evolution

1. Lovebirds Evolution By: Antoine

2. We took the lovebirds around December 15th 2006. They were very noisy and aggressive, probably because their environment had changed. They seemed to be stressed. A few days later, they still behaved in the same way. The female lovebird tried to bite us every time we opened the cage. I noticed that she was getting bigger and that she had lumps around her belly. One day, on December 25th, we heard a strange sound coming from the cage. Both the female and the male were very agitated. She had laid an egg in the top basket of the cage. It unfortunately fell and broke. We then gave her wood baskets which she used to build her nest.

3. Two or three days later, she laid another egg and continued to do so at the same interval. She started to sit on the eggs and did not leave the nest for the first few days. The male lovebird brought her food by putting it in his beck.

4. Afterwards, she would eat and groom her feathers on her own. While she would do so, the male replaced her in the nest to protect the eggs. They remained aggressive and protective the whole time. The female laid six eggs in total.

5. The first egg hatched around the 23rd of January. The other two hatched at an interval of three days. The two other eggs did not hatch because they weren’t fertilized. We removed these to leave more room for the baby birds. She started feeding them and was helped by the male lovebird. Every time she left the nest, the male replaced her. The little birds grew extremely fast. They seemed to change and grow bigger every day.

6. When they hatched, they only had pink skin. After around a week, they started to grow a down. They became darker and darker, and then started to grow feathers, which replaced the initial coat. They now walk and squeak to demand food. They are starting to eat grains and groom their feathers. The male became aggressive with the oldest bird.

7. He doesn’t seem to like the fact that the female spends more time with them. Then we had to take the baby birds out of the cage to avoid the attacks of the male lovebird. We fed them and observed them more closely. That is how we noticed that the leg of the youngest had a slight malformation. He seems unable to move his paw.

8. It was a great experience but we have to give the birds back to the school because we are no longer able to take care of the babies. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity and experience.