Hi,
Unfortunately you were definitely misinformed, whether the previous owner realized he was wrong or not. Breeding pairs are very sensitive and do not like any changes around them while caring for eggs or chicks. Even the slightest change in a room can result in the parents abandoning the eggs or even live chicks. It is pretty much unheard of for a pair to keep caring for eggs if moved to a new home – or even moved somewhere in their current home. The best thing to do now is discard the eggs – they would have died once they cooled down, if they were even good in the first place. Take the nest box down for now and rest the pair for at least 6 months. I’m assuming they have a nest box? You said they weren’t going in the cage to sit on the eggs? They should have a large wooden nest box, and typically you attach it to the outside of the cage as high as possible. The pair needs time to rest from this clutch of eggs – it takes a toll on the female’s health for her to form and lay each egg. They also need time to settle into your home so that they are more likely to breed again. Some pairs never breed again once moved. Cockatiels are usually pretty good about settling into a new home, but again, they need time. They also need to be on a balanced diet – seeds are not a balanced diet. They need a nutritionally balanced food such as pellets, dark leafy greens, chopped veggies and when they are set up for breeding, they need an egg food. This can be a commercial dry egg food or you can cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. They should have this daily once you put the nest box back, and then until all chicks are weaned. Never leave the nest box up all year. It should be removed after each clutch, whether the eggs hatch or not, and the pair rest for 6 months. If they hatch chicks in the future, you take the nest box away as soon as the chicks leave the box – they will not be weaned yet, but they no longer need the nest box once they can leave it on their own. Otherwise the pair will decide to nest again instead of weaning the chicks and they will let the chicks starve. Once the chicks are weaned, they must be moved to a new cage or the parents will start attacking them. This is instinctive and prevents related birds from breeding. If you keep the chicks, keep them separated by gender, and never let related birds breed with each other.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
