In bird keeping, one of the best thrilling experiences you can have is to see your birds become parents. In contrast, the most frustrating moment would be to see them killing their child or tossing the eggs out of the nest. Do you also have a pair of love birds that killed their own child? Or even if you found the chick love bird dead in the cage with several wounds on their body and wondering what could have happened, their parents likely killed him by themselves. Now, you might be wondering why do lovebirds kill their babies?
Lovebirds kill their babies if there is shortage of food. They may kill the baby if he is ill or have less chances to survive. Sometimes due to inexperience he is killed accidently.
Egg destruction or killing their chicks is a rare event for wild love birds. Thus, we are sharing the reasons why love birds kill their babies and how you can stop them.
Reasons Why Do Lovebirds Kill Their Babies:
Even though killing babies seems a cruel act, love birds always have a few reasons to do so. And following are some of the most common reasons you will find.
1. Shortage of Food
Among all the reasons for a love bird to kill its little bird, scarcity of food is the most common one. In today’s brutal world, every bird is not lucky enough to have enough food to survive. If they have 3 little chicks and have a feed that will be enough for only 2 of them, they will kill the third bird without a second thought. This theory of love birds may sound barbaric to you. But, keep in mind that they do not think like humans. Therefore, they prefer to have 2 healthy and well-fed birds rather than raising 3 unhealthy and under-fed birds.
Especially, for the love birds living in the wild, they highly depend on the feeder they find in people’s backyards or bird feeders. Therefore, you can also play a crucial role to stop a mother from killing her child by keeping the foods trays filled.
2. Inexperience of Parents can kill the babies accidentally
Becoming a parent is a tough task, as it is a huge responsibility. Yet, everyone is not ready for such responsibilities. The same goes for love birds. Once a love bird becomes a parent for the first time, they get confused. And with no experience, love birds are unable to decide what they should do with them next. And in the worst-case scenario, they kill their young chicks accidentally. Even though this is an uncommon scenario, some birds are just not a good cut out for being good parents. In this case, the mother is more likely to kill the baby bird or eggs as compared to a male love bird.
Other than that, you should not let your young love birds breed. Especially, if they are 1 year old or under, you should not be breeding them. Because these birds would be too young to become parents. If we compare this case with a human, it would be like asking a 14 year old kid to be responsible parents and that sounds horrible.
3. Health Issues of Chicks
When it comes to the reason why do lovebirds kill their babies, health issues are most common among birds living in the wild. On average, a love bird lays 4-6 eggs at a time. However, love birds believe in the survival of the fittest. Thus, if any of them is having some health problems even in his early days, they kill him. Or else, if they are out in the wild, they will make the little chick fall of their nest. These precautions are to make sure other birds do not catch the illness from him and stay healthy all along with their life.
However, if they decide to throw one chick outside the nest, it does not mean they have completely abandoned that particular chick. Instead, the parent birds visit him daily. Plus, they bring daily meals to the fallen bird. Because they believe that there is still a chance for him to survive. In contrast, if love birds living inside a cage face this dilemma, they mostly choose to kill the baby bird with their own bare hands. And it mostly happens when the bird owner is not watching them. So, if one of the love bird’s chick is not healthy, then you should take the baby bird out of the cage to save his life.
4. Stress can be the reason
Naturally, love birds do not eat their egg. But, if they are going through high stress or/and lacking nutrition in their diet, they may get frustrated and end up breaking their own eggs by themselves. Moreover, if they find any other Love bird’s eggs, they are also likely to eat them. Plus, they eat every single part of it from the yolk to shell. Even though it seems evil, this is the way they survive in today’s world.
This stress usually occurs in them, when they are living in a cage and are unable to move freely. Usually happens with the people trying to breed several love birds under the same setup. Despite their friendly nature, having several love bird couples under the same cage mostly results in continuous bird fights and increasing stress.
How to Stop Love Birds from Killing their Babies?
Once you are fully aware of why do lovebirds kill their babies, you must be wondering how you can prevent them. Right? So, the following are a few effective ways to stop them.
1. Fill their food pots
Firstly, you need to make sure that they are having a good feed. Plus, their feeders should always be full because it will make them feel well off and confident to raise their child. Even letting the feeders stay empty for a few hours can make them think negatively. Therefore, always keep an eye on their feed and make sure it gets refilled on time. Furthermore, if you make extra efforts to get their favourite meals, it would be a huge bonus point for you in stopping them from killing their own children.
For their feed, you should use fruits. In fruits, you can try corn, banana, or whatever you feel like. But, once your love birds get used to one feed, try to stick with it. Other than that, to keep your love birds healthy, add ViDaylin M and L to enhance their growth.
2. Remove Boredom and Stress
When the love birds get too much bored or stressed, they break their own eggs to release their stress. However, you can also help them by giving them a few toys in their cage. Moreover, you can also use fake eggs to put in their cage. This way, they will be attacking the fake eggs whenever they get bored, and the real ones will always remain secure.
3. Place New Lovebird In Separate Cage
Love Birds are friendly birds. Yet, if you have numerous pairs of love birds living in the same huge cage, you must have seen them fighting as they may get triggered by other love birds. And as the result, several eggs get broken in the cage. Therefore, if you want to stop them, Put each pair of love birds in a different cage. This way, they will not be fighting and interacting with each other physically. For that, you would have to spend a little on their cages. However, this investment will be worth the time and effort you are going to put in. Moreover, you can also find some tips on How to introduce lovebirds to each other.
Conclusion:
If your love birds are also killing their babies, you should figure out the reason why do lovebirds kill their babies. As killing their children are not their true nature, there is always a reason for them to kill their chicks. Once, you successfully identify the pain point, remove it as soon as possible, and you are likely to have positive results in near future. However, if their behavior is still unchanged, this would be a rare case and give you a signal that your pair of love birds is an irresponsible parent, and you should not breed with this pair ever again.
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