Ask Lafeber

Laid second clutch of egg too soon

Hi, i have a pair of cockatiels they laid their first clutch of eggs in the first week of January that had 4 eggs in total two of them were hatched from which one baby died after two days and the second one passed away after almost two weeks, and the rest two eggs were dead in shell, as soon as the second chick died they started mating again and started laying eggs the other week until now they have laid 2 eggs and i am assuming they’re going to lay at-least 2 more eggs.
My question is that “is it okay for them to have their second clutch this soon?
And are their any things i need to keep in mind this time? And what can i do to prevent their babies from dying?

Hi,

I’m glad you asked about this, and I’m sorry about the first clutch. It is definitely too soon for them to be nesting again. Forming and laying eggs is very hard on the female, and laying too often can actually kill her. In the wild, they only nest once a year, then the season changes and they leave the nest and move on until the next year. In captivity, it is the owner’s responsibility to prevent a pair from nesting over and over. A captive pair will literally keep breeding until the hen dies, and sometimes the male dies from the stress and exhaustion of raising chicks over and over. I personally would discard these eggs and remove the nest box. The eggs are undeveloped until the hen has incubated the for at least 48 hours, and even then, there is only a tiny bit of development. Since they did so poorly before, they are unlikely to do better with these eggs or chicks. First clutches do almost always fail because the parents are learning, among other causes. But having a 2^nd clutch on top of the 1^st one isn’t ideal.

Are your birds at least 2 years old? If not, they are not old enough to be breeding yet, and this is part of why the first clutch failed. Young birds are not ready to sit on eggs or care for chicks. They make more mistakes than an older pair, and they can develop bad habits that can be impossible to break, and can ruin them for being a good breeding pair. The nest box should always be removed as soon as the chicks have left the nest box or as soon as the clutch is done, such as with yours, sadly when the chicks died. You take the box down and rest the pair from breeding for 6 months. They should only be allowed 2 clutches per year. It is important that you are feeding a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets. If you are feeding a loose seed mix, they are not getting much nutrition and this would contribute to chicks not hatching or dying. You should also offer leafy greens, chopped veggies & some fruit. And while they have the nest box and are breeding, they need an egg food – cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg or buy a commercial dry egg food. Offer this until all the chicks are weaned. If your pair is only eating seeds, I would definitely take the box down now and discard any other eggs they lay. Otherwise they are likely to suffer the same fate as the first clutch. Again, even pairs that are old enough and on the best diet fail with the first try, but for the best chance of future clutches succeeding, make sure they are old enough and on a good diet.

Thank you for Asking Lafeber,

Brenda