My female parakeet laid a clutch of eggs. I tried to not bother them too much, but once they were almost all covered with feathers, I started picking them up and holding them. Under the pile of babies, I found new eggs. She had another bunch of eggs going before the first bunch were weaned! Long story , short, that is her M.O. I know it is not healthy but I dont know how to stop her!
Hi Sandy,
The best thing to do to help her is discard the eggs you found. It’s a lot more than being bad for her health. She will die if you allow her to lay clutch after clutch. Forming and laying eggs is hard on the hen. It drains calcium and protein from her body of each egg to form, and then there is the physical strain of laying each egg. Parakeets are not intended to lay eggs more than once a year. In the wild, the season changes and the birds leave their nests and move on until the next year. In captivity, it is the owner’s responsibility to keep the bird from laying eggs over and over. You may not like discarding the eggs, but finding her dead in the nest box is much worse. There are changes you can make to discourage more egg laying. For starters, once those chicks leave the box, take the box away and rest the pair for 6 months. You should limit them to 2 clutches per year with a 6 month rest in between.
You need to do all of these things to discourage egg laying. This information applies to the pair. 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
