Dutchie, the Creamino Lovebird

Lovebird Fever!

Dutchie is a creamino lovebird that is my daughter's pet. Elisabeth fell in love with Dutchie because she was white and creamy yellow. She loves white birds and has a solid white parakeet. We brought Dutchie home in September, 2007 from a local pet store.

We caught the lovebird fever for the second time in my life when my delightful daughters talked my husband into purchasing me two lovebirds for Mother's Day in 2007. That is how we obtained Nage and Emmett. Nage after "N"icholas C"age". Nage and Emmett lived in a cage next to Dutchie, the beautiful creamino. We had no idea what sex any of them were. They were just wonderful pets.

Dutchie, as I said, is my daughter's pet bird. Elisabeth would carry the bird around while she did homework, played with her computer or talked on the phone. Dutchie was hand tame and a lot of fun.

The first time I caught lovebird fever was about 8 years ago. I ended up with 22 birds. It was addictive. I absolutely loved them. So I knew that letting my daughter extend the birds hours past dusk would cause it to instinctively want to mate. But Dutchie, though spoken to as if a girl, was without a mate and we didn't really know if she was female.

One day Dutchie started defending her cage. She began to attack when we came to feed, water or clean. She no longer wanted to leave her cage. It didn't take long to discover she had lain an egg. And later the next night another.

I used to raise lovebirds for enjoyment. I always provide all of our birds a box. Still, I had never encountered this phenomena before. The females I had were with males when they started laying. Dutchie was suddenly laying without a male in the cage. A little thought and I opened both bird cage doors. Soon Nage moved in. That was Christmas Eve and now Nage is a want to be daddy lovebird. We are assuming that Emmett is a male since he and Nage never started keeping house.

To date, Dutchie has lain 9 eggs. She lay four before Nage moved in. She ate one egg. So far, no hatching. She is still sitting on four. By my calculation, the first fertile egg should hatch January 16, 2008.