Hi,
If you want to breed your birds, they need to both be at least 2 years old. If they are not old enough, you should discard these eggs and make some changes to discourage egg laying until they are older. If they are old enough, you need to get them a nest box – this will be a large wooden box that you attached as high as possible to the outside of the cage. They need to be on a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets – not a seed mix. You should also offer greens, veggies and some fruit. And while they are set up for breeding, an egg food. This can be a commercial dry egg food or cooked eggs with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the eggs. It is unlikely they will incubate these eggs, but you can place them in the box to encourage the parents to check out the box. Their cage needs to be in a quiet area and they need plenty of privacy. If they do raise chicks, you need to remove the nest box as soon as the chicks leave it, and then move the chicks to another cage as soon as they are weaned. You must rest the parents for 6 months between clutches, whether the eggs hatch or not. Otherwise they will literally breed over and over until the female dies from laying too many eggs, too often. In the wild they only nest once a year, and then the season changes and this signals them to stop. But in captivity, since we provide perfect conditions, they do not know they should stop. Below is information about changes you can make to discourage breeding and egg laying.
Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. The goal is to reverse these conditions.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
If she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only the head and neck – do not pet a bird on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
