My female lovebird (11mths old) has layed 3 eggs over 5 days. My male lovebird keeps throwing them out of her hut. I replaced the 3 with fake eggs and she’s doing well with sitting on them etc, however my male keeps taking them off her and throwing them to the bottom of the cage. Do I put them back in or leave them out. He seems to be jealous or agitated that she has eggs?
Hi,
Your female is too young to be with a male or to be breeding. Lovebirds should be closer to 2 years old before you let them breed. You mentioned a hut, and that needs to be thrown away, along with the eggs. No, they should not have fake eggs – these do not work with parrots, they are intended for species that always lay a set number of eggs. Birds only need a nest for breeding, and the rest of the year they do not use one. Birds do not need anything to sleep in. You should never give them the bird huts or tents, boxes or anything they might use as a nest. If you want them to breed, you need to wait for another year, and then get them the right kind of nest box for lovebirds. If your male is young like her, this is why he is getting rid of the eggs. He only wants to mate at this age, not raise chicks. What is going to happen if she keeps laying eggs is she will die from laying too many, or she will end up getting egg bound and dying. I would split them up and put them back together in a year. And while waiting for them to get old enough, you need to make some changes to discourage more egg laying. If she becomes a chronic egg layer, she will need hormone treatments from a Vet. And if he keeps throwing eggs out, this will become a habit and he will never be any good for breeding. Once young birds develop bad breeding habits, it almost always ruins them for future breeding.
Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. The 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.
If 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 let them roam around, this mimics searching for a nesting site.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only the head and neck – do not pet a bird 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
