{"id":5101,"date":"2017-03-23T21:09:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T03:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/blog\/?p=5101"},"modified":"2017-03-23T21:09:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T03:09:45","slug":"caring-2-senior-lovebirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=5101","title":{"rendered":"Caring for 2 Senior Lovebirds"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have 2 love birds that are approaching 20 years of age – <\/span>Help Scout<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

Beth W replied\u00a0<\/span>Feb 5, 12:42pm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have two love birds that are approaching 20 years of age and was wondering if there are special nutrition or habitat changes I should make for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

Mitch\u00a0replied\u00a0<\/span>Feb 8, 10:09pm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Beth – do you know their sex?<\/span><\/p>\n

Beth W replied\u00a0<\/span>Feb 9, 6:29pm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They are both male peach faced love birds, one is a year older than the other. The older bird is having problems with his balance occasionally.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Falls off perches, Last year the vet did some blood work and said the only issue was high testosterone and gave him 4 hormone shots. Really didn’t seem to help. Their main food is Harrison’s High Potency Fine pellets and millet on occasion as a treat. I have a couple of platform perches and the rest are Booda rope perches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mitch\u00a0replied\u00a0<\/span>Feb 13, 4:38pm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of nutrition, your birds are on a high-quality pelleted diet. It’s working let’s not fix whats not broken.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re not doing so already it may be fun to offer some foraging\/enrichment opportunities like putting pellets or fun treats like sunflowers seeds) in the bottom of a small box and covering it with tissue paper balls, vine balls, drinking straws and the like.<\/span><\/p>\n

When a bird is falling off of perches, we begin to introduce more platforms (what you have done) but I would also begin to lower everything in the cage so that we can help prevent injuries from potential falls. This ladder may be a nice addition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of habitat changes, we’ve always advocated to take everything out of the bird’s cage and move it around at least once a month in order to keep them mentally challenged and stimulated.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m a little concerned about the high testosterone and the four hormone shots. I’d be interested to find out what exactly the substance injected into your birds was.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your male is not expressing aggression what would the purpose of the shots be? I’m guessing they were not cheap?<\/span><\/p>\n

Beth W replied\u00a0<\/span>Mar 5, 9:20am<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sorry for the late response,\u00a0<\/span>Lupron was the injection Beaker, (my male lovebird) did receive.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He got 4 of them and they did not seem to help his feather plucking around his tail and balance issues at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

You were rather optimistic stating they cost $50. I was billed $75 and an additional vet visit of $42 for each shot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also was advised to separate my two male love birds into separate cages. That ended up making the issue worse for Beaker (he started plucking the neck too). The separation started a plucking problem with lovebird #2 (Gonzo). Gonzo just plucked his neck but stopped when I put them together again.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are back together now but I still worry about Beaker. I think the falling happens when he is very active, he rests for a bit and then is OK.<\/span><\/p>\n