Peachfaced lovebird

11. The feet should be clean, large, strong and not turned in and the toes should be straight and show no signs of curling inwards, there should be no scars or mutilations and all nails should be present

12. The bill should be clean and show no scars or mutilation, it should be large and not protruding at an acute angle

Articles from previous society magazines

Breeding Peach Face Lovebirds

by Brian Cope

Some 20 years ago, I was finding it increasingly difficult to care for my collection of exotic foreign birds because of arthritis, so I decided to reduce their numbers and to introduce a couple of pairs that would be easier to manage,
I wanted foreign birds which would breed freely, were pleasing to look at, and whose young would help to pay the food bill for the rest, peach faced lovebirds won the vote.
Since then it has been a constant process of learning from experience. If I had taken notice of some of the things that have been written about lovebirds, I would not have made much progress. For example, I now know that peach faced lovebirds will breed at any time of the year, yet some "experts" advise removing next boxes from autumn time till spring time. If I had done that I would have lost half the breeding potential of my lovebirds. In any case, anyone with experience of peach faced lovebirds knows that they spend a lot of time roosting in their nest box, even when they are not breeding. peach faced-agapornis rosecollis
About this time Jim Hayward wrote his book titled "Lovebirds and their Colour Mutations”, this book is the only book I would recommend to novices starting with Lovebirds (incidentally Jim Hayward agreed to be our President when our Society first started),
My attitude towards breeding Lovebirds is that they know best, If you provide them with the necessary requirements they will decide whether or not to breed, depending upon their condition, I have found that peach faced lovebirds will breed from the age of six months onwards. hens breeding qualities tend to fade after they reach five years of age. What happens after that they tend to lay fewer fertile eggs and longer periods between breeding rounds. In my opinion once the hens are more than six years old it is not worth keeping them for breeding, but some are still useful in a showing team. Cocks however, have much longer breeding lives. One of mine, a lutino which was once "Best Peach faced" at the "National" a couple of times, was still winning and fertilising eggs at 11 years of age, this is quite typical of the species.
I have found that peach faced lovebirds breed best in a flight cage based roughly in a 3ft cube, obviously it can vary in weight, width and height, vertically 4ft or horizontally 4ft x 2ft x 3ft etc, the resulting chicks can then be given more room when separated. If peach faced birds are in top breeding condition they will nest in any suitable receptacle, so nest box size is not critical. Anything from 7in cube to 7in x 1Oin high works quite well, again horizontally as well. I place a layer of wood shavings (from pet shop) one inch thick in the bottom of my nest boxes. The final encouragement for getting peach faced lovebirds to breed is a supply of green willow twigs (not weeping willow) these contain a chemical which is the basis of aspirin and brings the lovebirds into the height of breeding condition. It should be noted that with some other birds it can have the opposite effect. This green willow will be immediately shredded by both cock and hen, but it will be noted that the hen takes it into the nest box. The amount of willow in the nest box will vary, also the shape it takes in the nest box. Some birds finish with a dry interior, some end up with a wet interior, this is not your conditions, it depends on the birds.
Peach faced hens lay every other day until they complete their clutches, which can vary between three and eight eggs. Any more than eight eggs is a sure sign that the cage contains two hens rather than a true pair. This happens even in the aviaries of experienced breeders, eggs begin to hatch about 21 days after the third egg, this can vary a day or two as it depends 'when the hen starts to sit tightly, I do not think in terms of breeding rounds following each other at regular time intervals. Once again the birds know best, sometimes they rear three rounds in quick succession while at other times they take a break between clutches. As long as the youngsters are large and healthy, I leave the pair to get on with it. Over the last 30 years I have read a variety of suggested causes for "Dead in Shell" among them egg shells too thick, the hen being unfit, too much humidity and conversely too little humidity. My own observations are:

The particular cock with a particular hen can contribute to the problem; and
It happens more in smallish bird rooms than outside flights.

One thing is certain it will never disappear, I like to remove chicks from their parents when they are seven to eight weeks old (that is peach faced, I would leave masked a bit longer) otherwise the cock might attack the largest chicks in his hurry to go to nest again the chicks can be happily housed together until they are four months old, but then you will have to watch out for dominant hens causing problems. Young peach faced lovebirds attain full colour around five months, although I have found orange faced take a little longer. Having put to rest the myth that Lovebirds only breed in the summer, let me dispel another. One sometimes hears exaggerated stories of breeding achievements and when a beginner fails to match them, he could easily feel that he has failed, become disheartened and leave this branch of the fancy. If a peach faced lovebird breeder produces an average of three chicks per round per year, he is doing quite well.