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I have 4 black masked lovebirds in one single cage, 2 green and 2 blue, 3 of them abuse one of the blue ones, and last night one of the green ones bit one of the toes, and made it bleed pretty bad, i took it out and washed it off and got the bleeding to stop, and again tonight, they bit that same toe again, didnt bleed as much tonight, so i just left it in the cage, and turned out the lights so they would all just calm down for tonight, what i want and need to know is, why do they do it and should i take it out completely, cause i want them to breed soon, and i dont want them to end up killing it or biting the toe off completely, can anyone give me some advise about this.

If these were my birds, I would remove the attackee ASAP There are arteries in the toes that, if seriously bitten, can cause a lovie to bleed to death in less than a minute. You are correct in using the term "abuse". Would you leave a human child in a bedroom where three other children regularly ganged up on it? And do you think that a bird that is being attacked is suddenly going to become part of a bonded pair with one of the attackers? There are several possible explinations to this situation, including that you don't have 2 cocks and 2 hens. Hens get very aggressive when they start thinking about starting a family, and will try to eliminate anybirdie other than the "object of their affections" They may be small, but lovies are perfectly capable of killing a bird much larger than themselves, let alone another lovie. IMO, if you don't remove the birdie, you will soon have 4, not 5, lovies And don't assume that you can just move the attacked bird to the masked birdie's cage. Lovies decide who they will share their space with, not you. And there is a possibilty that once you do remove the survivor (if it is still alive), two of the remaining birds will gang up on the third. Three is a dangerous number in a lovie cage Good luck with your flock

I'm 100% with Bubblelady on this one. It would be cruel to leave the bird in a cage where it is being tormented by the others. And even if the others don't kill it, the ongoing stress of that sort of situation is likely to cause it to slowly deteriorate. I don't breed Lovies, but I know with Lorikeets that it can be difficult to find compatable cagemates. If blood is ever drawn, then the bird that is being vicitmised is removed and that's the end of the story! Odd numbers seem to rarely work in smaller cages. I would remove the bird and give it it's own cage for a few days so it can relax and heal a bit before I tried it with anyone else.

The bird that is being abused MUST be removed from the cage ASAP! In my own experience, the worst abuse will happen after the lights go out and you may find a corpse in the morning. Additionally, you are most likely going to have to remove another bird, as trios in a cage don't work, either.

To determine which bird to remove, you will have to see who sleeps next to who. Lovebirds will sleep in pairs and the one sleeping with the bird you need to remove should be right next to it. To make sure you get the right bird, I usually use a spray bottle of water and wet the birds I need to deal with. That way, there's no mistakes. However, the abused lovebird needs to come out, regardless.

Thank you all so very much. I see that eblake logged in right immediately you posted, Linda, so I'm hoping hard the birds will be kept safe. It's great to have your expertise here.

In re-reading this post I realize my dyslexia was operational upon first reading I read that you had a masked lovie in one cage and 2 greens & 2 blues (& I assumed they weren't masked ) in another. But my opinion remains the same. I think you are risking ending up w/ 3 birds if you allow the current situation to continue. And I also continue to think that 3 is a crowd with lovies as well as lovers

Everything I share with other lovebird lovers is from my own personal experiences, be it good or bad. Finding a dead lovebird on the bottom of the cage in the morning is not a pretty sight. Lovebirds kill by splitting open the back of the victim's head. I've seen it once. I don't want to see it again or have anyone else go through the experience if they can learn from what happened to me!

Thank you all for your advise. Want you all to know that i am separating them now, and i do know which ones to separate, i just hope that the ones that are really close are male and female, i have been wanting them to breed. i guess i will just have to wait and see what happens with the break up. So are you saying that the hens are becoming aggressive to the male, or what. These are my first lovebirds, and i have only had them since august. I am still learning about them, am i to assume that the other 3 in the cage are female, and the one being abused is a male. Please let me know. Or at least tell me what you think. And thanks again for the advise.

Glad your birds are still okay. As to your question, you can assume nothe when it comes to lovies The only way to know for sure is a DNA test...or, if a birdie lays an egg, it is a hen When a bird is very aggressive, chances are that it's a hen, but it's not a asure thing. And a cage aggressive hen can be equally aggressive to male and female alike. To other hens becasue she wants no competion in her territory, and to males because she doesn't want that particular male as her mate.

You say you have only had the birds since August. Do you know how old they are? It isn't good to breed very young birds, even if they are physically capaable of doing so.

I'm sure Linda will be along & she knows much more about breeding than I so she will have more detailed info for you. Good luck with the "seperation".

The aggression you are seeing is not necessarily indicative of sex/gender. I actually had a known male lovebird kill another lovebird and I was shocked! Hard to say what you have in the cage but at least one of the lovebirds, perhaps more, doesn't like the one that is being abused. Could be competition for a mate, or it could be that one just doesn't like the other. (Humans are the same way.)

The only thing to do is to separate them. I would DNA sex the pair that you want to breed to find out if that's even possible. How well I remember buying my first two pairs of Lutino Peachfaced Lovebirds, hoping I had 2 males and 2 females. Most Lutinos are female but when I DNA sexed them, I found I had 1 female and 3 males!!

yes i did separate them, i have 2 green masked and 2 blue masked, and each of the two green and blue are from the same clutch, they were born in june or july of this year, and i wasnt going to set them up to breed until next year, i was just hoping they all were going to get along with each other, cause when i got them they all were in the same cage together, they all came out of the nest at about the same time, and they grew up together, i first bought one pair, a blue one and a green one, then i decided to go back that same week and get another green and blue one. what age is recommended to start breeding lovies, i was told about 10 months to a year, please let me know what you think about it. and again thanks for all the info you guys are giving me, and was also wondering, if i breed a blue masked and a green masked, what colors would the babies be,

If I understand you correctly, the blues are siblings and the greens are siblings. If that's so & a green pairs up with a blue, that's okay. But you don't want siblings to mate, even if they love each other As far as the age, I'll let Linda give you the specifics. I believe it's recommended that they be at least a year old, even though they are physically capable of breeding before that. Egg production is very hard on the hen--very calcium depleating. And caring for and feeding the chick is very energy draining. So you want to be sure your hen has time to develop good strong bones before she has to worry about being a parent. Parenthood is not for whimps

if i breed a blue masked and a green masked, what colors would the babies be,

If the green bird is split for blue (carrying a blue gene), you can get both green and blue babies. If the green bird is not split for blue, green is dominant and all babies will be green and all will inherit the gene for blue from the blue parent.

I don't allow my pairs to breed before they are a yr old, minimum. Their bodies just are not ready for it, even if they are capable of laying eggs.