Hi my kakariki pair have 6 eggs, we’v noticed from day 8 that she isn’t sitting on /laying on her eggs like she normally would. They ar in door birds. don’t want to intrude on their box, any ideas why she doesn’t sit on them like she previously would have been.
Hi,
It isn’t always clear why a hen will stop incubating a clutch. If this pair has produced before, it can be due to over breeding. When breeding indoors, it is very important to remove the nest box and rest the pair between every clutch, regardless of whether or not they hatch. If they hatch, you remove the nest box as soon as the chicks leave it or are pulled for hand feeding. Otherwise you remove the box once you determine the eggs will not hatch. Rest the pair for 6 months before returning the nest box. In the wild, most bird species only produce eggs once per year, and then the weather changes, signaling the end of breeding season. In captivity, they have no signs to stop breeding, so if you don’t force them to rest, they will breed and hatch eggs too often and this is very bad for the female’s health. A worn out hen starts laying infertile eggs, or the chicks aren’t healthy, or she loses interest in incubating the eggs.
If this pair has been well rested, could she possibly have reached an age where she is getting too old to breed? Has anything changed in their environment – new birds, new pets or people? Has there been a big weather change – even outdoor weather can have an effect on indoor birds. Is their diet sufficient – nutritionally balanced, greens, veggies and cooked eggs with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with them(or other protein and calcium supplement)? Is the hen possibly having a health issue – if she doesn’t feel 100% she might abandon her eggs. I have seen some huge internal tumors in Kakariki’s I would consider these possibilities, and definitely give this pair a 6 month rest. Hopefully they will be ready to breed again once they have rested. If it happens again, then it probably means she is ready to be retired as a breeder.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
