Ask Lafeber

Breeding cockatiels

Hi, I have a 3 year old very tame male and a 2.5 year old female who is not tame although she will come and sit on my arm sometimes. They live in a huge cage with 2 male budgies and a female budgie and have their own room where they have free flight. All get on very well. The male cockatiel is particularly bonded to one of the male budgies, however he’s been mating with the female cockatiel. She has now laid 2 eggs in the small travel cage which is kept on the lower shelves of the cage where it is dark and cosy. The male is not interested in her or the eggs, he’s more interested in zooming around with his budgie buddies. When the female leaves her box to go to eat in the main cage she chases him and is very territorial. There doesn’t seem to be any likelihood of him being able to join her or share in any rearing or hatching. I’m supplementing diet with calcium and hard boiled eggs to help the female keep up her strength but realise that this situation is not ideal. I’ve ordered some dummy eggs and once she’s finished laying her clutch I intend to replace the eggs and eventually remove the travel cage from the room to avoid this happening again. The male cockatiel has absolutely no interest and seems to identify as a budgie, and the female is doing this all alone. Do you think this is the right decision? I’m not in a position to hand rear and feel that it’s too much for the female. So far the female seems healthy enough but this must be taking a toll on her. Thanks for any advice

Hi,

Actually you can just go ahead and take the eggs and carrier away. Dummy eggs aren’t going to serve what their purpose is. Some species lay a specific number of egg, and will continue laying until they reach that number. Dummy eggs keeps the hen from doing this in a situation where the real eggs are removed. However, cockatiels are not a species that lay a predetermined number. There is no evidence to support letting her sit on the eggs or giving her dummy eggs makes any difference in whether she will turn around and lay more. In some cases, you can let her sit until she decides the eggs aren’t going to hatch. But in this situation, the longer she sits on eggs, the more likely she will become more and more territorial and end up attacking and even killing any of the other birds that get too close to her. It’s best to stop it now – take any new eggs and don’t let her have anything she can use as a nest. The concern is that she will become a chronic egg layer. Hopefully if you remove any nesting sites, she won’t keep doing this. There is a list of changes that often work, but with the set up you have, other than having the budgies in the same cage, it is very conducive to breeding. Hormone treatments can be very effective with cockatiels, especially the implant. These treatments are safe, but very expensive. But as long as you have the male, she is likely to lay eggs.

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