Ask Lafeber

Why my Cockatiel Not laying eggs?

I had bought a male cockateil from one of my friends. Which is now aged 1.5 years. Later on i bought a Female for him which aged 10 months. I paired them and they started mating after 10/12 days. And It’s been a month they are regularly mating now and spends a lot of time in Their breeding box. But the female is not laying eggs. They are mating now for almost a month now.
Is this because the female is still too young? How many days the female might take to lay her eggs?

Hi Youhan,

You really need to separate this pair right away. Your female is much too young to be breeding and laying eggs. She needs to be at least 2 years old before you put them back together. In captivity, birds mature at a much younger age than in the wild. But even though they are already hormonal, they are not fully developed physically at that age, and they are definitely not mentally ready. Your hen is at a very high risk of becoming egg bound and dying if she starts laying eggs when she is so young. Your male is at the minimum age for a male cockatiel to breed, which is 18 months. But breeding is much more of a physical drain on the female, so she needs to be fully developed physically and mentally, and there is no way she is ready at 10 months old. Young birds make a lot of mistakes if you let them breed. They are much more likely to not incubate the eggs, break the eggs, eat the eggs, not feed the chicks or even kill the chicks. These are all bad breeding habits that generally can’t be broken, so you end up not being able to breed them. Your chances of success, healthy parents and healthy chicks is to split them up for now and let her get old enough. It is important that neither bird have a nest box until they are old enough and set up for breeding. Birds only need a nest for breeding, and after each clutch, the box needs to be removed and the pair rested for several months. It’s best to only allow them to have two clutches per year, which is one more than they would have in the wild.

It is also important that they are on a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets or our Nutri-Berries, Avi-Cakes or Pellet-Berries. If you are only feeding seeds, this is not going to provide the nutrition they need as pets or breeders. They should also be offered dark, leafy greens & chopped veggies. When she is older and you do set them up again for breeding, you will start offering cooked eggs with the shell cleaned, crushed and cooked with them as well as some multi grain bread. These foods are only for when they are breeding.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda