Ask Lafeber

Eggs don’t look like eggs

Just took in a 8 year old female cocktail who seems to be going through the egg laying process, but previous owner always threw out the eggs everyday and now she produces a glob, runny almost.

Hi Carole,

This is actually very serious! I would consider it to be an emergency. I urge you to contact an Avian Vet and ask them to accept her immediately as an emergency. It’s alarming already, when you say the previous owner was throwing an egg away “every day”. I don’t know how long she has been laying eggs, but Cockatiels can’t be allowed to keep laying eggs like that. In the wild, they only lay eggs once a year. In captivity, they can get stuck in an egg laying cycle and if not treated, she will die from laying too many eggs. She is at the critical point where she is going to die without immediate medical care. She has lost so much calcium and protein that her body can’t even form an egg or the egg shell. A calcium deficiency, as well as a protein deficiency, affects her skeletal system & internal organs, also. Her body will start to absorb calcium from other parts of her body causing bone fractures, seizures, neurological damage, egg binding and death. I know this is scaring you, but I have to be blunt so you know how urgent this is. She can be treated by a Vet and should recover as long as she is treated immediately – as in today if at all possible. Her body will already be trying to form another egg, and that could be one egg too many. Once she is treated, there are thing you can do to discourage or stop egg laying. I would recommend asking the Vet about a hormone implant. There are shots, too, but the implant seems to work better, and it lasts longer. Then there are changes you can make with her cage and lighting that will help. Please write back with an update on how she is doing after she sees the Vet, and I can go over what you can do to keep this from happening again. I’m glad you were able to take her in.

Take care,

Brenda