Ask Lafeber

Female cocktail

Can female cocktails can lay eggs without male?

Hi,

Yes, any female bird can, but of course the eggs will not be fertile. With female cockatiels, they are bad about becoming chronic egg layers, which can eventually cause them to die. It may seem natural for a bird to lay an egg, but in the wild, they only do so if they have a mate, and they only lay eggs once a year during nesting season. There are some changes I recommend to discourage future egg laying. Since she has started a clutch, this time she may lay 4-6 eggs with a day between each egg.

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.

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.

Right now as I mentioned, she will probably lay several more eggs. But if she starts a new clutch in spite of you making changes, then you may need to look into getting her a hormone implant by an Avian Vet.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda