Lovebirds won’t make it without food for more than 48 hours, with the actual effects of starvation kicking in 18 – 24 hours afterwards. This is due to their metabolism which has them losing a good portion of their small frame every day which, if not supplemented by sufficient food would be fatal. 

How Long Can A Lovebird Go Without Water?

There isn’t any real data on this as most people wouldn’t go out of their way to not give water to their lovebird but, it has been calculated that a lovebird could go without water for around 48 hours before the the negatives of dehydration begin to kick in.

You’ll know your little parrot is dehydrated if they their skin veins take 2 or more seconds to fully refill as opposed to immediately if they were healthy. Of course unless you’re a vet or well versed in handling lovebirds, you wouldn’t be able to check but, that is one method to find out.

Now do keep in mind that if a lovebirds diet consists of berries and vegetables that are mostly water based, they will not really suffer the effects of dehydration all that much but, if say they were to go cold turkey and not consume anything water based, they will dehydrate, which would become a major issue for them.

How Much Food Does A Lovebird Need To Live?

Lovebirds on average tend to consume 15% of their body weight in food everyday. The average weight of a lovebird is around 40 – 60 grams meaning your average lovebird will eat around 6 – 9 grams of food per day, give or take a few grams depending on how active they are.

You should also be fine serving 1 – 1.5 tablespoon of food per day to lovebirds, which would roughly equate to 10 or so grams once the seed shells have been accounted for.

One good thing about most small pet parrots is that they only eat as much as they should and not more. Of course this makes sense with pelleted seeds and the fruits they eat, both of which aren’t extremely dense in calories yet are still a great way to keep their belly full.

Throughout the day your lovebird will peck on food until full so, you won’t need to go out of your way to constantly keep the bowl full as there is plenty to keep them satisfied.

How Often Should You Change A Lovebirds Food?

This depends on what you’re feeding them and how quickly the food item will become out of date. When it comes to fresh items like fruits, vegetables and even bread, you will need to swap it out every day otherwise mold will form on it.

In hotter climates you’d probably need to throw it away sooner as bacteria thrive in such environments and in turn will multiply at a faster rate.

In regards to the pelleted seeds and other seeds, changing that every other day or at the latest every 3 days should be fine as long as you blow away the leftover shells stacked at the top.

As for water, that will need to be changed either once a day or twice a day if your lovebird decided to to use it a make shift shower.

Feathers and even droppings can find their way inside the drinking water therefore, changing it daily to make sure it isn’t infected with bacteria would clearly be the best course of action here.

How Long Can Your Lovebird Be Left Alone?

Most of us have go to work daily or want to go out to the occasional social gatherings so there can be a fair share of scenarios where you would have no choice but to leave your lovebird for multiples hours and sometimes even multiple days.

In regards to your normal day to day situation where you could be off to work for around 8 – 12 hours, your lovebird shouldn’t really have too much of an issue. If it’s a singular bird, it may be a little sad as lovebirds are social creatures despite their feisty reputation but, they’ll be able to cope.

Therefore, if you leave them with fresh food and water until you make it back home, although they may be a little stressed out throughout the day there’s not really too much to be worried about here.

On the other hand if you’re going away over the weekend, at that point you will need someone to look after them because their water will likely become a mess and food generally wouldn’t last beyond 2 days.

A pet sitter would be essential if you’re unable to take the lovebird with you.

How To Keep Your Lovebird Happy Whilst At Work?

If you want your lovebird to be relatively happy whilst your away for work, you can choose to do the following things:

• Keep your curtains open so your lovebird can look outside.
• Leave the TV or radio on so your lovebird has something they can listen to.
• Switch up their toys so they can spend their alone time problem solving.
• Make it a little harder for your lovebird to get access to their food using a toy mechanism so they solve the problem throughout the day.

Of course most of owners tend to get 2 lovebirds so they can keep each other company in moments like this. If you’re able to get a second lovebird, this will make it a lot easier for your lovebird to make it through the day happier.

With that being said do be aware that lovebirds are aggressive so, you will need to take precautionary measures before they can live in the same cage together.

Summary

Lovebirds in their entirety are not likely to make it past 48 hours without food before starvation really kicks in and their metabolism starts eating up their body weight.

Considering lovebirds are really light and the fact they eat around 10 grams of food per day, it only makes sense their metabolism would be so high to burn off literally around 15 – 20% of their body weight per day so 2 days would mean a good portion of the weight necessary to keep their organs functioning as normal would be gone.

In short, birds are nothing like us or other larger mammals, reptiles etc. so make sure to keep their food bowls filled otherwise their metabolism could result in your lovebirds untimely demise.