Ask Lafeber

My birds ate their eggs

My birds gave 2 eggs 15 days ago and when I went to check on them today the eggs disappeared. Not even egg shells remained. What should I do?

Hi,

You should remove the nest box for now and rest the parents for 6 months. You didn’t mention the species, but the birds may be too young to breed. Eating eggs is not rare, but it is usually done by younger birds, or birds that have been bred too much. If you are not providing enough nutrition, this can also cause a pair to eat their eggs. It is a bad habit that often does not stop, and in that case the pair should not be bred anymore. You need to be feeding them a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets, along with leafy greens, veggies and some fruit. You should also feed them an egg food while they are breeding. This can be a dry commercial egg food, or you can cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. If you are only feeding seeds, this is not going to provide the nutrition they need. If this is a small bird species such and budgies or cockatiels or lovebirds, the male & female should each be at least 2 years old before you set them up for breeding.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda