Saturday we are going to pick up our black-masked lovebird. It will still be on 2 feedings. The reason I am getting an unweaned baby is because I want to wean it onto a healthy diet including natural pellets & fresh fruit, veggies & greens. Most breeders wean their lovebird babies onto just seed. My lovie will get seed but in the form of Nutri-berries. I’ll also use millet bits for training. My flockers enjoy Zupreem all natural, Roudybush & Harrisons pellets. Since all of them eat the large parrot sized pellets, to keep from having to buy a whole other bag of small sized pellets, I purchased a marble mortar & pestle. I’ll crush the pellets down to a lovebird-friendly size. I like the fact the crushed pellet pieces are all different shapes & sizes. It will make a more interesting meal than all just the same shape & sizes.
I’ll be doing the DNA sexing test myself. Well, getting the sample & sending it in. I still can’t decide whether I want to pluck a feather or get blood. I don’t want to do it myself but the breeder said she doesn’t bother with testing.
Here is the cage set up for the baby. It was originally a travel cage for my medium-sized parrots. It’ll be just fine for while the baby learns to perch, climb & swing. Eventually I’ll get it a flight cage when it perfects its balance & flight. I plan to keep the little one flighted like all of the other flockers. I asked the breeder not to clip it & she said she wouldn’t end up clipping them for another couple of weeks anyhow so the timing works out.
I’m keeping the cage in my room as I intend on raising this little one to be mainly a companion for me. My other parrots are just wonderful, but I intentionally raised them to be independent & they are exactly as I’ve raised them to be!
As of yet, I am not certain what I am going to name it. I’ll probably toy around with some names until I get its DNA result back. Since these pretty little parrots are rasta colors (which is also fitting because lovies are native to Africa!), I might give it a Jamaican name.
