Ask Lafeber

What should I do?

Hi! I have a soon to be five year old cockatiel female who started to lay eggs in a nesting box my mom gave her without my knowledge. I have delt with eggs before so I knew to just leave them alone until she abandoned them. She laid a total of 5 eggs and when I noticed she was done laying i knew that now is the time to wait for 3 weeks. I think it’s been maybe 4 weeks now or so and now she started laying again. She laid the sixth egg the 31th of January, then again the secound of February. So she now has 7 eggs. I think this counts as a secound clutch I’m not entirely sure. So I just want to ask what I should do? She is out of the nesting box most of the day, as one of my males takes over for her. She spends all night in the box and the male sleeps in his cage.

I give her plenty of extra calcium in various forms, sea shells, egg shells and veggies. I try to not disturb her as much as possible, although I do have a little sister with autism and it’s really hard for us to keep her away from my parrots especially my female since she thinks we are gonna have baby birds.

I just don’t know what to do with my female and her eggs so I really just need some advice, thank you!

Hi,

A single bird should never be given a nest box, especially a female cockatiel. They are notorious chronic egg layers and can die from laying too many eggs, too often. You need to remove the nest box and discard the eggs. Then you need to make some changes to discourage more egg laying. Otherwise, you may end up having to take her to an Avian Vet for hormone treatments, which are very expensive. Again, if you can’t get her to stop laying eggs, she will eventually die. Please explain this to your mom. She isn’t like a chicken which are domesticated and bred specifically to lay eggs. In the wild, a cockatiel pair would only lay eggs during nesting season, and typically only raise one clutch per year.

Keep in mind that in the wild for breeding, they need 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 show 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.

When 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 let her roam around, this mimics searching for a nesting site.

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