First-time bird owner in Oshawa — help!

Hi all! I just adopted a lovebird and I'm already head over heels but also completely overwhelmed. So many questions: what pellets do you recommend? How do I know if they're sick? Is it normal for them to sneeze? How do I get them to trust me? I've been googling non-stop but real owner experiences are worth way more. Thanks in advance for any guidance!

Welcome to the forum! Great to have another bird lover from the GTA. Your lovebird sounds adorable — what's their personality like?

Update: took everyone's advice and things are improving. Rio is slowly coming around. This forum is the best.

My lovebird did this too! Turned out it was because of insufficient UV light exposure, especially in Canadian winters. Once I addressed that, everything went back to normal.

Great question! So in my experience with Senegal parrot, this usually comes down to a few things. First, putting the food bowl higher up — birds feel safer eating at height. Second, make sure they're getting enough sleep — 12 hours of uninterrupted dark sleep is crucial. And third, pay attention to insufficient UV light exposure, especially in Canadian winters because that was a huge factor for my Bean. Hope that helps!

Welcome to the club! My lovebird trained ME in the first week. They're way smarter than they let on.

So what I ended up doing was using a shower perch so they can bathe with warm mist. Within a few days there was a noticeable improvement. Definitely worth trying.

I'd suggest trying spending at minimum 2 hours of supervised out-of-cage time daily. My avian vet recommended it and it made a huge difference.