I have a blue pied lovebird who turned 15 in September. I believe he is a male because in all the time I have had him, he has never laid an egg. I got him from a pet store when he was 3 weeks old and I finished hand feeding him myself (I was and am a very experienced hand feeder). He was included in the mail bag of the January issue of Bird Talk magazine including a photo under Lovebird Longevity.
I boarded him for the first time ever for 2 weeks while I went home for vacation over Christmas and New Years. The bird store owner breeds lovebirds and he could not believe Kiwi is 15. He said he shows no signs of old age at all. When I got back, he told me he asked every customer who came into his store, including experienced lovebird people, to guess the the age of Kiwi and he said the oldest guess was 1 year old with most people guessing between 6 months and 1 year.
I am very proud of my sassy little lovebird and he is the best pet I have ever had. He is tightly bonded to me and dislikes children. He will go to other adults if I give him to them but he wants to get back to me ASAP and they are not allowed to touch or pet him or he will bite them.
While he has lots of toys in his cage, his favorite thing to do is shred paper or thin cardboard into little strips and watch them fall to the floor of his cage. He has never ever tucked them into his feathers and while he has a plastic hamster house that he sleeps in every night, he has never brought any of the stips of paper or cardboard into the house to attempt to make a nest.
I can't recommend a lovebird as a pet highly enough. My only recommendations are you buy a hand fed baby from a reputable pet shop or breeder and that you handle it and pay attention to it every day. Keep it as an only lovebird also if you want it to stay bonded to you. I've had Kiwi so long that even after leaving him for two weeks, he was ecstatic to see me when I got back and came right to me like I had never been gone (although he would not go to anybody else in the store the entire time so he had to spend the whole time in his (large) cage).
If I could figure out how to post a picture of him, I would because I've taken some great photos of him since I got my first digital camera a few years ago. He used to hate the camera and run from it but now he glares at it and puffs up his face feathers and tries to intimidate it like he's a tough macho bird...LOL
