The popularity of keeping pet birds has been increasing over the last few years and more and more people have been liking the idea of having a couple of love birds as their pets.
Unfortunately, when it comes to love birds, its not as easy to pair them up as most people initially think and it can be very common for your pet love birds to end up fighting each other, at least when they are first introduced to each other.
As you can probably expect, this results in a large number of people reaching out and asking how to stop love birds fighting each other each month so we have decided to publish this article.
Our hope is that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible who have pet love birds who are fighting each other and we will be able to help you calm them down.
Although love bird fighting can be common, it is also usually easier to stop than fighting in some other types of birds. Unfortunately, this may involve you having to get a brand new cage as the most common reason love birds will be aggressive to each other is due to their cage being too small for them.
A smaller 18x18 cage is the absolute minimum size you should be going for with love birds but fighting can still be common in anything under a 30x20x30 cage.
Are Lovebirds Aggressive Towards Each Other?
Some love bird pairings can go off without a hitch but there will usually be some initial fighting between love birds when they are initially paired up.
This fighting can be more aggressive if one of the love birds (usually the female) has been in the cage longer than the other as they can become territorial and protective.
If you are trying to re-pair one of your love birds due to unfortunately losing the other one then fighting can be very common too with it being notoriously difficult for re-pair some love birds.
Aggression levels in female love birds does tend to be considerably higher than that in male love birds too so it is very common for the female lovebird to be attacking the male with minimal aggression being displayed from the male.
Thankfully, once you have successfully paired the love birds with each other and made sure that any potential problems that may actually cause aggression in your birds has been removed, they do tend to calm down.
The main question is how long will it take for love birds to stop being aggressive towards each other and unfortunately, there is no easy answer and timeframes range drastically.
Why Do Lovebirds Fight Each Other?
Love birds will fight for a number of reasons with the most common problem being due to their cage being too small for two love birds to be in it.
Other common causes of fighting amongst love birds is due to fights over-enrichment within the cage, fights over food, and relationships with other birds.
As we mentioned back at the start of the article, a smaller 18x18 cage is the absolute minimum recommended cage size for two love birds but even then, it can be so small that there will be fights.
Simply going with a 30x20x30 cage may actually be enough to stop your love birds fighting if they are fighting each other due to the available space in their cage.
A larger cage can also help to remove other common causes of love birds fighting each other too as it allows you to add more enrichment and feeding stations to the cage for your birds.
The more resources available, the less likely your love birds are to fight each other and the more likely it is that the female love bird will stop being so protective of her territory and start to accept the male.
How To Stop Lovebirds From Biting!
You are able to stop your love birds from biting each other by making sure that their cage is large enough for the two birds while also making sure there is enough food and enrichment in the cage for both of them.
Multiple feeding stations in the same cage can also help to prevent your love birds from biting too while also lowering the general levels of aggression in the cage.
If you have lost the male love bird from a previous pairing and you are now trying to pair up your remaining female love bird with a new male then expect excessive biting. This can be normal as love birds can be difficult to re-pair after one of your initial love birds is lost.
This does tend to be more difficult if it is the female love bird who remains as female love birds are generally more aggressive than males.
On top of this, if the female has lived in the cage for years and then you add a new male she may become protective of her territory and constantly attack the male love bird too.
Should I Separate My Love Birds If They Fight?
Some people do separate their love birds into two separate cages that they keep side by side if they fight.
The theory is that keeping the two love birds in their own cage that are kept side by side each other lets the love birds get used to each other but the success rates for this strategy are not as high as some people suggest.
Once you put the love birds back into the same cage, the fighting can actually end up being worse than it originally was due to the love birds perceiving the cages they were alone in as their own territory.
We usually recommend against separating your love birds if they fight each other if you do plan to reintroduce them at some point due to this.
If you plan to keep your love birds separate from each other indefinitely then separating them due to aggression and fights between the two can be a good route to take.
It will stop the fighting instantly and let the love birds focus on other things rather than each other but keep in mind, once separated, especially for a long time, it is usually much harder to reintroduce them in the same cage.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how to stop your love birds fighting to an end. Fighting love birds really is more common than most people initially realise and it can also be very difficult to get your love birds to stop fighting and biting each other too, especially if your cage is too small for them. This is a very common mistake that we see people new to making love birds make due to the advice on cage sizes on social media being incorrect and it being common place to recommend cages for birds that are simply far too small for them.
