Expansion of the Expat in the Philippines family

No do not worry: my wife Flor is not pregnant, nor is our niece and not even our cat Emily. Nothing of that all. So the title of this post must be about something else, and that’s true.

Some of the readers of Expat in the Philippines know that we are looking into houses. We are living in a rented place and we like to buy a property somewhere. It is difficult to find a nice place for a decent price but that’s not why I am writing today; it’s about expansion of the family, remember?

A few days ago we were viewing a house with a garden and the owners had several nice birds in their back yard: they were all the so-called ‘love birds’, or ‘Agapornis’
(Greek: αγαπη = agape means ‘love’ and ορνις = ornis means ‘bird’ )

After viewing the house and while we were having a nice talk to the owner of the house we were also admiring their lovely birds. Flor looked at me saying she would like to have some. We have been talking before about having a few birds as pets so I agreed: Flor was asking if they would like to sell us a pair. At that moment the son of the house told that he would like to give us a pair because they have plenty. We looked at each other and we accepted this nice offer.
A small box was taken and the man selected two nice birds (a pair according to him) and they were put in the box. After thanking the very friendly people for this gesture, we left the place promising them to call soon about the house.

Now we have a pair of love birds sitting in a small box, but we do not have a place for them at home.
On the way home we had to buy a cage for those birds, and some food. So we ended up in Marikina in a pet shop where we purchased a cage for them. The moment we were home we set them ‘free’ in their ‘new home’. The first few hours they still had to get used to the surroundings and their cage, but they were finding their food very fast which was good because it was getting dark already.
According to the man the yellow-green one is the male and the blue-green one is the female. We will see ….

Next morning we put the cage outside on the terrace table, where they have a better view of the surroundings, more light and they can hear some other birds in the wild in the trees on the other side of the street. And they enjoyed it, they were more lively, producing their specific sounds and play. Emily, our cat, also wanted to meet them and even wanted to play with them we think …

The size of the cage is 43 x 46 cm and 39 cm high. This will do for the moment. Flor wanted them to breed already and wanted to buy a nesting cabinet already. I think it’s not the time yet. I like to build a larger cage first, safe from cats and other hazards, and I like to integrate a breeding place there.
So the love birds can practice making love, but nothing more at the moment …
Now after a few days, Emily doesn’t mind that much anymore, but we do not let her alone with the cage …

Read more about this kind of birds on Wikipedia lovebirds.