Hi Tracy,
You are correct that both birds are much too young to be breeding. Laying eggs is hard on a female bird, and lovebirds should really not be laying eggs until they are about 2 years old. In captivity, they do become sexually mature at a young age, but they are not fully developed physically and mentally. It is highly unlikely that the eggs are fertile, if the male is only 4 months old. But he can be sexually mature as young as 6 months. The problem with young birds breeding is that the female is at a higher risk of becoming egg bound, and both male & female are not as likely to want to settle down and care for eggs. This puts them in an endless breeding cycle of mating and laying eggs, and the female’s health will begin to deteriorate.
I would discard the eggs and separate the birds. If these are tame lovebirds, be careful when you pet them and limit any contact to the head and neck. When you pet a bird on the body, this is something usually reserved for a mate, and it can trigger hormones on both sexes. There are other steps you can take to try to keep her from laying eggs again. Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early in the evening. Rearrange toys and even the perches in the cage, and move the cage to a busy spot in the room. If possible, move the cage to a new location about once a week, even just across the room. By moving her around and changing things in her cage, this keeps her from feeling like she has a stable nesting site. Do not give her any type of nest, bird hut, box, large bowl – nothing she can sit in. If she is sitting in her bowls, buy smaller cups. If she is nesting in a corner of the cage, hang some toys where they are in the way. Don’t give her any paper or cardboard to shred – nothing that she can view as a nesting material.
Unfortunately, you are going to have to keep these birds in separate cages, or she will keep laying eggs. She also may get frustrated with him and attack him. If she were a peach faced lovebird, she probably would have attacked him already, but luckily Fischer’s are not as aggressive as the peach faced. Once she is 2 years old, you can let them share a cage, but most likely they will mate and she will lay eggs. This doesn’t mean you have to give her a nest box and deal with breeding, but it’s something you will have to work at to limit her egg laying. She really should not be laying eggs more than twice a year. If she were a breeder, you would have to remove the nest box after each clutch and rest the pair for 6 months. If you don’t take steps to discourage egg laying, she will lay eggs year round, and it will eventually kill her. In cases where a bird becomes a chronic egg layer in spite of making changes in the caging and light, you have to take her to an Avian Vet for a hormone shot or implant.
As to why she did this, even single females will lay eggs. But caging her with a male increases the chances of unwanted eggs. Adult birds don’t have “friends”. They form a bond with another bird and then want to breed. Even if you cage same sex birds together, they will often form a mate bond and behave like a breeding pair. Two females will sometimes lay eggs and incubate them together, even though the eggs are not fertile. So keep this in mind when caging birds together. Males & females should not share a cage until both birds are old enough to breed, even if you have no plans to breed them. If these birds aren’t tame, then yes, it is good to have a companion. But if they are tame, each bird needs its own cage. Otherwise they will eventually bond to the point that they can no longer be handled. It’s a lot to take in. Young birds can be together and everything seems great, but once hormones kick in, the dynamics change.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
