I have 2 lovebirds that are just over 3 years old, over this time they have both displayed mating behaviour but never had any eggs. For this reason we believed that they were 2 boys. Very recently on of them laid an egg. Is there a reason why one of them has started to lay eggs?
Hi Allira,
Your lovebirds are actually at an ideal age to breed. Many owners let them breed when they are much too young. In the wild, they likely begin breeding between 2-3 years of age. Now you need to decide if you want to deal with breeding or not. You don’t have to provide a box or let her incubate the eggs if you don’t want to deal with chicks. She is likely to keep laying an egg every other day until she has laid 4-6 eggs. If you do want to let them breed, then they need a nesting box. They also need to be on a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets, supplemented with dark leafy greens and chopped veggies. She needs an egg food while she is laying eggs and if she hatches chicks. You can cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with it. This helps to replenish the protein and calcium she loses when she forms each egg. If you don’t want them to hatch chicks, you can take the eggs away, although she might keep laying eggs if you do this. If the cage has a metal floor grate, you can leave the eggs on the grate and let her sit on them. They will not incubate because they can’t get warm enough on an open grate. If there is no grate, you can poke a hole in each egg with a pin, within a day of her laying it and this keeps it from ever starting to grow. It takes 48 hours or longer for the egg to begin to develop once she starts to incubate it. One other option is to discard the eggs as she lays them and replace them with fake eggs that you can order online. They make dummy eggs for most pet bird species.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
