Ask Lafeber

Help- they won’t stop laying!

I have two female zebra finches that seem to dead set on starting their family. Both are laying, on average one egg a day each, and it’s been about 2 months of this. They are starting to show signs of egg binding, and I’m anxious to try anything to get them to stop! They have a permanent dish of grit in their cage for calcium replenishment. I’ve tried changing their environment and restricting food, but nothing seems to have helped convince them this isn’t a good habitat for them. At first I was taking the eggs away, now I’ve given them some nesting materials and let them keep the eggs (on advice that the only way to stop them was to let them realize the eggs were never going to hatch) but this has not appeared to work. I just want them both to be happy and healthy and stop laying eggs!

Hi,

I would take the nest and eggs away. All you are doing is encouraging the behavior. Restricting food is not the way to go. You should force them to go to bed at night, and cover their cage to make sure. They should have at least 8 – 10 hours of covered time. You may need to move them around. Even if you have to move them once a week, or once a day. Do they have toys? There are plenty of little plastic toys that they enjoy. You need to learn how to keep them busy without nesting. It’s not a quick process, but it’s better than putting up with eggs, or having them die from laying too many.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda