How old do lovebirds get?
This is a question that has elicited a variety of responses and discussion, which we will sum up for you here. Most breeders believe that a captive lovebird will live for 15 to 20 years with care and attention. Some breeders though, will remove their birds from breeding at 5 to 7 years of age, despite the fact that they can continue to breed well, far beyond this age. Unfortunately, there seems to be a fear that the birds germplasm breaks down with age, and the potential for damaged offspring increases. The productive captive breeding age is felt to be between 1 and 6 years for the majority of breeders. Depending on the breeder’s goal, the germplasm of certain individuals will be passed on within a number of generations and the original or parent bird becomes inferior to the offspring, at which point it is sold. In the wild, where the birds face continuous culling through a variety of means, the average age has been postulated as 2 1/2 years, which makes sense given the potential loss
