I adopted 2 cockateils from the humane society , they are male and female . Last week the female layer an egg on the bottom of the cage . I took it and put it in a shoe box with shredded paper towel and sat it in the xage bottom . She layed 3 more eggs over the next 6 days . She was sitting on them and looking fine . Today she looks a bit feather ruffled sitting outside the nest and the male is on the eggs more. What should I do to help her ?
Hi Rosemarie,
A shoebox is not a good option for cockatiels. They need a large, wooden, enclosed box that attaches to the outside of the cage. A shoebox is going to get wet from the droppings and will start to fall apart. The paper towels are also going to hold in moisture and may harbor bacteria. The shoebox is open, and doesn’t offer the privacy the birds need. It may also prevent the eggs or chicks from being kept warm enough. It’s not likely this is going to work out. If the box starts to fall apart, the parents will abandon the eggs. However, if you change to a nest box now, they will abandon the eggs. You can either discard the box and eggs now, or take your chances. But it is much more heartbreaking to lose live chicks to an inadequate box than to throw out eggs now, that might not even be fertile or started to develop yet.
As for the female, if she looks sick, she needs to be taken to a Vet. If she is sick, you need to throw out the eggs – the male can’t do this alone. Typically one parent sits all day, and one sits all night. It’s possible that laying eggs took too much out of her. Are they on a balanced diet such as pellets? If they are only eating seeds, then she isn’t getting the nutrition she needs. A breeding pair needs the best in nutrition – a balanced diet like pellets, not a loose seed mix. Also leafy greens, chopped veggies, some fruit, a cuttlebone and egg food. The egg food can be a cooked egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. The female loses protein and calcium when she forms eggs. If all she has is seed, she has no way to replace these nutrients and this can cause her to be sick or die from the deficiency. She may need immediate vet care if this is the case.
Regardless of how this works out, both parents need to rest for at least 6 months before being allowed to breed again. This means no nest and you have to make some other changes. If you let them breed again, they need the diet as I described, and they need the right kind of nest box. Meanwhile, make these changes to discourage more egg laying. Of course the most important thing before anything else is to take the female to a Vet if she is sick or weak.
You need to do all of these things 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.
When 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.
Tale care,
Brenda
