Ask Lafeber

Cocktail bird lay eggs without a mate

Hello, Sorry to be annoying again but I have a question related to cocktail bird . I take care of my friends birds she have two female cocktail. two months ago , one of them make strange movements sit on the bottom of the cage in one corner and raising their tail and make different sound just like crying in my opinion ..the next after few weeks specially last month i saw an egg in the bottom of the cage and I was too surprised because there is no male after 48 hour she laid the second then stop so because I become afraid that if I remove the eggs so things will haven i leave it until 10 or 12 days I don’t remember exactly this month she return to lay eggs exactly after 19 or 20 days .. she lays two eggs than stop 6 days and after the 6 days she lay 2 eggs and now I am waiting to see what will haven after 48 hours I am so afraid because I don’t know anything about birds and I only feed her mixed beans and some times i give her what I eats bread and rice s >> I don’t know what the vitamins for the birds I need to saw a picture and in which way i should give her .

she is a weak before laying eggs so I am afraid for her because there is no veterinary next to my house .. please help me

also what should I do to eggs should I remove it or leave it
also can you told me about the vitamins she needs and the type of foods and if there a pictures to it it will be great

Hi,

A lot of single female cockatiels lay eggs in captivity. But if they lay too many, it will eventually kill her. Each egg drains her system of calcium and protein, as well as being a physical strain on her. There are changes you can make to help discourage more egg laying. In the wild, they only lay eggs once a year, so as you can understand, laying eggs as much as she is doing is not good for her.

As for food, she should be eating a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets. You said you feed beans, but did you maybe mean seeds? Beans would not be a good diet – they are much too high in protein to be fed as a main diet. If you can find a pelleted diet, they have all the vitamins she needs. I can’t recommend a vitamin since I don’t know exactly what she is being fed. Too many vitamins can be toxic and in some cases cause death. So you need to be careful about using any vitamins. I’ll give you the link to our bird feeding guide below.

You can try some changes to discourage egg laying. 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. 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 handle her, limit any petting to only her head and neck – do not pet her 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.

Bird Food Guide

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda