Well, it’s been 6 days since my female budgie laid her last egg. And yesterday the male bird flew away.
So still my female budgie’s poop is large like before her pregnancy. Why is her poop large and is it going to affect her health?
Hi,
Her droppings are large because she doesn’t want to leave the nestbox to poop, since there is no male to guard the nest or help her. Holding in her droppings like this can result in an intestinal infection or other health issues. I do want to correct you about using the term “pregnancy”. Birds do not get pregnant – all development takes place outside of the body. They lay eggs whether there is a male present or not. If there is a male, the eggs may or may not be fertile. Fertile eggs have no development when laid. They only develop if incubated around the clock for at least 48 hours, and even then, the development is minimal. Each egg is only inside the hen for up to 48 hours – the amount of time it takes to form and pass through her reproductive system before she lays the egg.
I again advise to remove the nest box and discard these eggs. It’s not fair to expect the female to do this by herself. She will die while trying to care for the eggs if it becomes too hard for her. It is her instinct that drives her to care for them. and you really do not even know if the eggs are fertile, just because there was a male. You are causing her to go through a lot of stress on her body, with death being a possible outcome, and in the end this could all be for infertile eggs. Even if they hatch, she may not feed the chicks without having the male to help her. It’s better to stop the process now than to watch chicks die later, and possibly have her die. Budgies are in no way a rare bird, so there is no valid reason to expect her to continue with this by herself.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
