Hi, I have a pair of parakeets and my female has 3 eggs in her nest. She has been sitting on them for a full week, but starting today, she isn’t sitting on them nearly as much and she does not stay in the nest at night. Is this common? I have not touched the eggs or nest other than opening the box to account for each egg and when it appeared. Thanks
Hi Shirley,
This is pretty normal for a first clutch. It almost always fails. The parents are still learning and make mistakes. The parents do need to be old enough – 18-24 months old. Young birds lose interest in eggs and only want to mate. So if your pair is too young, I would take the nest box away and let them mature some more. It’s also important to remove the nest box and rest a pair for 6 months between clutches, even if the eggs do not hatch. In the wild they would only lay eggs once per year. Two clutches per year is ok in captivity, as long as they have a rest in between. If you don’t remove the box to rest them, they will nest over and over again, and this will eventually cause health issues or even death for the female. Most likely they will do better next time – they just need to learn what to do and that usually means messing up the first and sometimes the second clutch.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
