Female Opaline Lovebird For Sale, Mesa, AZ

$35, parent raised, 3months old, excellent health and feather, newly clipped, no cage.

The Parblue Peachfaced Lovebird

Most people hear peach faced lovebird and the image that comes to mind is a green bird with a vivid red mask. While that is certainly a peach faced lovebird it is but one variation on the species, Agapornis roseicollis. Peach faced lovebirds come in an easter basket of colors and variations, the parblue series being some of the most magnificent and sought after. Here in the US we commonly call these birds dutch blues, white faced, and sea greens. These are the terms we’ve come to know them by and recognize from other breeders. There are, however, internationally accepted names for these mutations and they are

aqua=dutch blue

turquoise=white faced

AquaTurquoise=sea green

Parblue mutations are the result of a partial reduction of the psittacin in the feathers. Psittacin is a pigment in the feathers that can vary from red to yellow. Notice I said partial. There is no true blue mutation in the peach faced species, that’s because there hasn’t been a mutation with a complete lack of psittacin, only reduced. In the aqua mutation, there will be approximately a 50% reduction in psittacin over the whole bird. In the turquoise mutation, there will be as much as a 80-90% reduction leaving a nearly blue plumage that might be patchy green and a very pale, to nearly white mantle.

Parblue mutations are recessive, this means they must be passed from both parents to be visible. It’s important to note that aqua and turquoise are separate mutations and to know what happens when you cross them. That’s where the AquaTurquoise comes in, this is a parblue bird that received the aqua trait from one parent and the turquoise trait from the other. The bird is neither aqua nor turquoise but something in between, it is in fact SPLIT for both the aqua and turquoise mutations. A pairing between an aqua lovebird and a turquoise lovebird will result in all AquaTurquoise birds. An AquaTurquoise lovebird will have a primary green ground color and a pale mantle.

Parblue mutations can be combined well with other mutations like pied, cinnamon (American cinnamon), pallid (Australian cinnamon), marbled (this is a fairly new name that takes the place of silver and edged dilute), opaline, and ino (cremino). When combined with the orange faced trait, the parblue mutation will have a yellow mantle, also being called yellow faced.

The photo on the left shows a lutino lovebird with an aqua lovebird. That particular bird has no violet factor no dark factor. These are things that can vary the ground color of a bird greatly! Like it sounds, the dark factor will make a bird appear darker, the violet factor will add a violet tint to the feathers. The photo on the right show an AquaTurquoise opaline on the left and a turquoise on the right. it’s a terrible photo as I don’t take that many pics but it’ll do. Both birds have double factor violet, the AquaTurquoise has one dark factor. The opaline would have a pimary green ground color but for the violet and dark factors. So many colors to be made!…only so much room at the inn

I know there is little scientific information here, I didn’t write it for those that are beyond this but for those that just need a few basics before diving in for the rest. So I hope some will forgive the simplicity of this post while others appreciate it!

 

 

For the Love of Your Lovebirds….Sprout!

I know everyone’s heard of the virtues of sprouts at least once in their life, it’s a super food right? All the possibilities of the plant squeezed down into a tiny sprout, full of trace elements, minerals, vitamins, and oodles of things that I can’t spell, things that promote a healthy immune system, digestion, and overall health. As soon as a seed or grain starts to germinate all the stuff in them that require work to digest and store start to break down and turn into pure good stuff so there’s very little required to digest and make use of them, they’re like nature’s vitamins. Sprouts sold for people are fully sprouted plants and that might make it seem a little intimidating to think you need to produce that for your birds, but in fact you don’t. Sprouts are actually at their most nutritious when you first see a tail coming out of the hull, the whole process taking about 2 days.

By a landslide, the all time favorite around here is wheatberries and they’re all waiting every morning for them, in fact that is the only sprout I am feeding these days. Other great things to sprout…….brown and wild rice mix (takes longer to soak and germinate), sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, whole lentils, pretty much any whole grain or legume but keep in mind the size of your lovies….they like small things, and can be finicky (you know, in case you didn’t already know that ) so plan on yours not appreciating all of these. Mine used to like sprouted mung beans and now don’t, some things they prefer more sprouted than others, and it varies between the birds, too. My birds don’t like the barely germinated sprouts as much as ones that are a bit more sprouted, so I never serve soaked for mine but that doesn’t mean yours won’t like them. You should serve a variety of stages of development to see which they prefer.

Whole Foods Store has a vast selection of whole grains and seeds in their bulk section: Japanese field rice, buckwheat, 3 or 4 kinds of wheat, mung beans, adzuki beans, other things I know I’m forgetting, but I used to would go in there and get a large variety and mix them together when I get home and that would be my sprouting mix. You can also sprout wild bird food….millet is great for sprouting and even milo which is not so good normally. You can sprout any seed mix that doesn’t have extra stuff in it. That makes it a great idea to try to keep a seed only mix on hand…mixes have lots of things that will spoil the whole process of sprouting.

I always recommend anyone start with wheat berries, they are inexpensive and readily available in bulk at Sprouts or WholeFoods. I have never heard of any lovebird not taking to wheat sprouts right away, they really are just like lovebird crack, it’s crazy. Here’s what I do, firstly I put a TINY bit of diluted bleach into a small container (I keep a bottle of water and bleach at a ratio of 10:1 under my sink for daily cleaning of birds’ dishes)

to head off any bacteria that might be there to produce fungus later, then I add filtered water (I always use filtered water for my birds), then add whatever I am soaking. Let that soak for about 10 hours (even soaked seeds are better for your birds than unsoaked seed!) then I pour it into a small colander with small holes (mine are from the dollar store) and rinse thoroughly. I place the original container under the colander to catch drips and cover the top with a wet paper towel to prevent drying out. I rinse about 3-4x each day and do this for about 1.5 days (depending on temp and humidity!), at which point wheat berries are perfect for my lovies!. When you decide they are ready to be stored in the fridge you want to be sure they are very well-drained, if they are wet they won’t keep long in the fridge. I put mine in a plastic baggie and squeeze out as much air as I can, these can stay in the fridge for up to a week  if they are not too moist, you can smell when they start to go bad. To help keep it from being too wet, lately I’ve been putting a folded papertowel on top of the sprouts and putting it in the fridge top down, so if there’s too much water the towel soaks it up and I can easily toss it.

Sprouts are awesome for any lovebird but especially so for any lovebird who may be ill or undernourished. They’re also great for a lovebird who you might be trying to switch to a better diet. Once your lovie is eating the sprouts well, just sprinkle a bit of another new food on top of the sprouts, they’ll try it, it may take a time or two, but they’ll try it. In my experience birds who are eating sprouts are far accepting of other new foods. Sprouts are also a fun way to interact with your pet lovebird! If you already knew about sprouts, that’s awesome, but if not, I hope I gave you the courage to try, it really is easy and your lovebird will be so appreciative

Photographing Your Work!

What’s the point in making something awesome if you can’t really show it off in a photo! Right? Now, I’m no pro and it was a VERY short time ago that my photos were considerably bad…I didn’t know they were bad of course lol I thought they were OK But looking back, the difference is amazing between my new and old photos. If you’re already taking great photos and are happy with the results, turn around, don’t go farther, this is not for you! This is for the beginner who needs help and wants help and doesn’t have a ton of $ for professional equipment. Full article here