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 werent 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 doesnt 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.