Ask Lafeber

Question:

June 4, 2020

Not breeding


My African lovebirds mating number of time but not laying eggs why


Answer:

Hi Vinay,

There can be a lot of reasons why a hen hasn’t laid eggs yet. Are the birds old enough? The female should be 2 years old and the male at least a year and a half. Do they have the right kind of nest box? This will be a wooden box attached to the outside of the cage, as high as possible. Are they going in and out of it? This is usually a good sign that she is going to lay eggs. Do you know for sure that you have a male and female? Same sex birds will mate and you can’t determine the gender of a lovebird with 100% accuracy without having a DNA test run. She may not be fertile for some reason. They need to be on a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets or our foraging diets. A loose seed mix is not adequate. They also need dark leafy greens, chopped veggies & fruits, multi grain bread and cooked eggs, with the broken shell cooked with them. The last two foods are to be fed during breeding season. The hen especially needs the extra protein and calcium from the cooked eggs. Bird breeding takes a lot of patience. You can have everything perfect and still no have any results. Some birds do not make good breeders. And sometimes the mates aren’t compatible – after all we usually choose for them and we might not chose the right mate. All you can do is wait and hope she starts to lay eggs soon.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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