Thanks for reaching out to Ask Lafeber. There are several things going on here. First of all, as healthy as it is for birds to be able to fly like yours do, giving them free access all the time is not setting good boundaries for them and birds do need to have boundaries set for them or this type of behavior will quickly get out of control, and it sounds like her hormones are dictating her behavior. Do they sleep in their cages at night? If not, I would try implementing this at bedtime right away. If you are already doing this, I suggest closing their door at night so you can determine when they are allowed to get out and have free flight in their room, and not them. Also, I would cut down her daylight hours down about 2 hours daily. That should also help with the egg laying. In a bird’s world, the more daylight hours they have will allow them to forage food longer in order to keep their babies well fed.
The next thing I suggest is to eliminate all the triggers in her environment that’s causing her to be hormonal. Since conures are cavity nesters, they seek dark and enclosed places to lay their eggs in. So, if you have any boxes, she can crawl into or sleeping sacks, I suggest removing them immediately! This is not helping her physically or mentally. In the wild she would be sleeping on a perch with the rest of her flock. She would only sleep in something dark and enclosed during breeding season. Also 11 eggs are a lot for a conure to lay in one clutch. The normal size is between 3 to 6, so she’s depleting her calcium much too quickly. The normal gestation time for a conure is between 20 and 25 days depending on the sub species. The larger the bird, the longer it takes for the chicks inside the egg to grow to maturity. Allowing her to sit on her eggs for 6 weeks is much to long for several reasons. First of all, if she’s sitting on eggs, she’s not eating as she should because she doesn’t have a mate to feed her and help her care for the eggs, and she’s not getting the exercise she needs to maintain good health. Incubating eggs is a very stressful time for birds and allowing her to have these eggs for so long is not good for her overall health. I always advise people to allow a bird to keep their eggs for about 5 days after they’ve laid the last one, then remove them all at once and remove whatever she’s used as a nest.
Her diet sounds pretty good; however, you can give her more than one Nutri Berry per day. Nutri Berries and Avi Cakes are both balanced diets. Many people consider them a treat, but they are as balanced as any pelleted diet on the market. When birds eat them, it gives them the opportunity to experience different tastes and textures as they do in their natural environment. When I was breeding birds, they had more Nutri Berries and Avi Cakes than pellets. They thrived and so did their babies. Fruits and veggies are always good for bird to eat as long as they are not too high in sugars. I know birds love bananas, apples and grapes but they are all very high in sugar. If your birds are willing to eat berries or melon, it will be much healthier for them. Also, it’s important to never feed them spinach, especially for your bird that’s laying so many eggs. Spinach binds calcium in birds and reptiles, so eating it could easily cause her to become egg bound and if that happens, it’s considered a medical emergency and you would need to get her to an avian vet right away or one that’s familiar with treating birds that are egg bound.
As for her biting and being territorial, it’s certainly caused by her access to free fly at will and having a place to find enclosed darkness, so as soon as you eliminate the things mentioned above, you should see a change fairly quickly.
I hope doing these things help, and if you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out again. We’re always here to help.
Debbie
