Hi Harini,
I’m sorry your cockatiel is having these problems. Unfortunately she is way too young to be breeding and laying eggs. Frist let’s address her health, and then I’ll explain about the breeding. If she is straining to lay the egg and nothing is happening, you need to take her to an Avian Vet immediately. If she is egg bound and can’t pass the egg on her own, she will die. Signs to look for are straining, fluffed up, tail pumping up and down and generally looking distressed and uncomfortable. If she is egg bound, this is an emergency situation.
Cockatiels should not be given a mate until they are at least 2 years old. It doesn’t matter if you don’t give them a nesting box. As soon as you put a male and female together, it can trigger their hormones. Cockatiels can start going through hormonal periods as early as 6 months of age. But they are not ready physically or mentally at this age. The females especially should not be with a male, because they are at a much higher risk of becoming egg bound when they are too young. The males can also have issues, mainly developing bad habits like breaking or eating eggs, because they only want to mate when they are this young, and aren’t ready to settle down and care for eggs. Once a male develops these habits, he is generally ruined for ever being a good breeder. They learn breaking eggs means they get to mate again, so they just keep doing it.
If your female survives, you need to make a lot of changes until she is 2 years old. Take the male out. You have a complicated situation because a female cockatiel’s hormones can be triggered just by hearing her mate. So aside from separating them, you will need to make other changes to prevent her from laying again until she is old enough. Ideally you would move him to another room, but again, if she can still hear him, she is at risk of trying to lay more eggs. Definitely take down the nest box – she won’t need this until she is 2 years old.
You need to do all of these next things to discourage egg laying until she is old enough. Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. Your 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.
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 handle her, limit any petting to her head and neck – do not pet her on the body.
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
