More Chatboards | Print | Share | Report Post

Re: New Addition to my family
Posted by Jessica on 7/13/06

Hello Toni!

Congrats on your new pet lovebird. They're so fun!

There are only two ways to tell the age of a lovebird. One
is if it has a legband on it with a year. If your bird has a
ring around one of its legs, and this is a solid ring (no
splits in it), then gently look at it and see if there is a
year on it. The year will be in two digits (for example,
this year's will have 06 on the band). If there is no
legband, you can sometimes tell that a lovebird is young
(recently weaned) if there is black or dark coloring at the
top of the beak near the nostrils. This dark color is on
some baby lovebirds (mostly depends on what color the baby
is, how dark this is if it is there at all), and gradually
goes away as the bird ages. It is usually gone by the time
the bird is approximately 5 - 6 months old.

Peachfaced lovebirds that are young (prior to their first
molt) will not have the full color of their faces in yet. If
your bird shows a peach face, and it is a pale peach, mostly
showing on the cheeks, then it is probably a young bird that
has not gone through its first molt yet. The first molt will
bring a brighter, darker peach face coloring, with a dark
band of peach on the forehead. White-faced lovebirds have a
white-ish grey face when they are young, which will brighten
to a nicer white at the first molt. Blue or seagreen
lovebirds also have a greyish-whitish-pale peachy forehead
and cheeks when they are young that will change to a more
solid melon color on the forehead after the first molt.

Otherwise, there is no way to tell for sure how old your
lovebird is.

Lovebirds do not have powdery down like cockatiels, African
greys, or cockatoos. You will find little fluffy down
feathers as the bird molts. As babies, there is often a lot
of "dust" around the cage as the bird grows it's feathers in
the first time. This is tiny pieces of the protective
feathers sheaths as they break off and expose the new
feathers. It is not significant or noticeable later during
routine molts.


On 7/13/06, Toni wrote:
> We have a new lovebird and I have to say, this is the most
> cuddly bird I've met yet. Is there anyway you can tell
> age? It is a peach faced as far as I can tell. Does it
> have the powdery down?

Posts on this thread, including this one

• New Addition to my family, 7/13/06, by Toni.
• Re: New Addition to my family, 7/13/06, by Jessica.