Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/10/2007

Question
hi,Chrys
this is sophia again in your past answer you asked if they were pair-bonded yes they are they have had babies with there past owners they're a couple of years old i think. they have mated once that i know of. still no babies i've done everything that i have read

Answer
Hi, Sophia,

I reviewed your previous posts and my answers.  You've never answered most of my questions with information I can use to help you.

I'm assuming the female is still not going into the nesting box?  If not, did you put the substrate into the box or did the birds make their own nest inside the nesting box?  If you put the nesting material in the box, this might be the problem.  You need to allow the birds to do this.  If you didn't, we'll go on.

Not all birds that mate produce eggs.  Usually if they don't, there is something wrong with the setup or location or there could be medical reasons.  By setup I mean they don't like their nesting box (could be too small, too large, don't like the substrate in the box).  By location I mean the birds might feel their offspring wouldn't be safe so they won't lay eggs or if there are other animals in the house or people who bother the birds too much or a location where they can see outside and things outside intimidate the birds so they won't lay eggs (birds don't know what glass is so things outside to them from a window are able to get to them).  Unhealthy birds often won't lay eggs.

Do you know the previous owners well?  If not, sometimes bird owners who want to get rid of their birds will say anything to sell the birds.  Do you know for sure these birds have produced offspring in the past or are you relying on someone's word?  

Are you sure of their sexes?  Lovies have to be DNA sexed in order to have 100% accuracy of their sex.  Homosexuality exists in the bird world and 2 lovies of the same sex often imitate a true pair.  If you've actually seem them mating, then disregard my latter statement.

A month is not a long time to wait for eggs to come.  However, if mating is occurring, then something else is wrong as eggs usually come within 10 days of successful mating.  Perhaps the mating wasn't successful.  Sometimes a mating doesn't "take" and no eggs are produced.  This could be what is happening, particularly if they've only mated once.  Perches that aren't stable enough don't allow a successful mating, perhaps the male didn't get it right the first time, etc., etc.  Perhaps these birds are older than you think and one is infertile.  There could be medical reasons for no eggs.  

In summary, there's lots of things that could be at play here.  I'm at a disadvantage because I don't have all the information I need to help try to figure out what's going on.  If you can provide more detailed information about all that's going on, etc., I could be of more help to you.  Tell me all that you've read that you've done.  Not everything in print is correct, especially on the internet or WWW.

Chrys