My lovebird is suppose to be female seagreen cinnamon Fischer. My other peach face is laying large clutches of eggs (11) I finally removed them after 2 months passed. She’s laying eggs again. Could a year old male be old enough to fertilize the eggs. She/He was 9 months when mated with female, is it possible the bird was too immature to fertilize? She/He is shy of a year old now. Could eggs be fertile at that age?
Hi Sonja,
You have a few big problems here. To begin with, you should not have a Peach Faced lovebird paired with a Fischer’s lovebird. These are two different species of lovebirds and if they do reproduce, the chicks will be hybrids. This is heavily frowned upon in aviculture. While many hybrids are fine, there can be a lot of issues because of different incubation periods between the species and other differences. I would separate these birds right away. Lovebirds should not be paired until they are at least 18 months old, but 2 years is a better time to start. 11 months is far too young for a male to be with a female.
The biggest issue is the amount of eggs the female has laid. She is in danger of dying from laying too many eggs. Each egg drains protein and calcium frim her when she forms it. Then there is the physical strain of passing each egg. She is only intended to do this once a year, because in the wild, breeding season is only once a year. In captivity, you have to make changes to discourage or stop egg laying year round. Otherwise, she can die. In some cases, the bird needs hormone therapy at the vet, and in her case, she may be a candidate if you can’t get her to stop laying eggs. Removing the other bird is the first step. Then you need to make other changes. If you do want to breed in the future, you need to get a peach faced male that is at least 2 years old. And you have to rest the pair for at least 6 months between each clutch of eggs, whether they hatch or not.
You need to do all of these things to discourage egg laying. Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. Your goal is to reverse these conditions.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
When she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only her head and neck – do not pet her on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
