Ask Lafeber

Male Lovebird Escaped from Cage Leaving Female Lovebird with 2 eggs

Hi, one of my lovebirds escaped from its cage. It is a male lovebird that has been separated with a female lovebird in a cage (they’ve been together for a year). I only noticed that there were 2 eggs in the nest when the male lovebird was missing, these are their first set of eggs. We have other lovebirds but on a different cage. What extra care or things should I do for the female lovebird that was left alone with 2 eggs? This is making me so sad.

Hi,

I’m sorry the male flew away. The best thing to do for the female is take the nest box down and discard the eggs. She would have just started laying since there are only 2, so she hasn’t been able to incubate them long enough for them to be viable, and they may not be fertile anyway. She may lay a couple more eggs that can also be discarded. She can’t care for these eggs by herself. Both parents help with the eggs and chicks. Since this was the first clutch, even if the male didn’t fly away, it probably would have failed – first clutches almost always fail. The parents are still learning, and they make mistakes. If she tries to care for these eggs by herself, it will be at risk of her own health. And most likely she will not sit on the eggs around the clock anyway. It’s too hard on a hen to try to do this, and this is an inexperienced hen so it’s highly unlikely she would know what to do without the male to help. I would put her cage near the other lovebirds, unless they are set up for breeding, too. Give her some toys and extra treats and give her time to accept that her mate isn’t coming back. You can eventually try to introduce another male, but not right now because she would probably attack and even kill another lovebird since she was recently nesting.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda