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1: no hiding places, any place dark, snuggle buddies, tents, anythign that resembles a nest...take them all out.
2: chage the cage around frequently, moving it to new places in the house every few days helps too, brids dont like to lay n unfamiliar territory so by frequeently changing the cage around andmoving its location you keep them 'on their toes'
3: DO NOT pull eggs...if you pull them she will lay more...
in the case of single lovvies just leave them, as long as you dont crack em you wont have to worry about them going bad and once she realizes there not going to hatch she will abandon the nest...
if you keep taking them they stay in the laying cycle, its the broodyness of trying to hatch the clutch that breaks that cycle and gives her abreak...
if its a female whos housed with a male (potential for fertile eggs, take it out, give it a GOOD shake, (you want to scramble it in the shell) mark it with either a sharpie ect (so you know which ones have been 'broken') and then put it back...again this way shell lay a clutch and then incubate, when they dont hatch shell abandon the nest and take a break.
4: make sure shes getting plenty of calcium, a cuttle bone crushed calcium or even powdered egg shells will help, egg binding is a real risk
5: if it contnues take the bird to an avian vet, the brid can be given a hormonal shot to bring them out of the laying cycle, youll usually have to repeat it every 8-12 months but its much healthier than her continulally laying.
6: make sure your feeding a good varied fresh diet high in DARK greens (kale for example) again good calcium to phosphorus ratio...itll also keep her in tip top shape.
7: COVER THE CAGE...lovvies are seaonsal layers, they tend to lay as the days get longer, so make sure they are getting no more than 8-10 hours of light maximum...use a cover for the cage and keep it on a strict schedual.
the shorter the day for them, the less likely they are to continually breed/lay.
i have a lovebird that will not stop laying eggs (infertile). she does not have a mate. if she did then i would have a ton of lovebirds right now! she lays a clutch of 6 every other month it seems. any ideas to prevent (is probably impossible but still would appreciate any thoughts). my main question though is what to do with the eggs (take them away immediately or not until she has lost interest?) i want to make sure that i am not contributing to this chronic egg laying. i get different responses so i would like to hear your opinions.
thanks for your advice/ideas.
I haven't read everyones comments so sorry if someone has already suggested this, you can buy fake eggs for this reason, i think it would help as she would be incubating them and would not feel the need to lay so many, you could also introduce a male if se isn't already in a pair as love birds appreciate some company, also ensure she has a good diet with a good mix of fatty seeds such as sunflower and carbs, protein etc. some people give egg shell as a good source of a calcium supplement this is eally good although some people don't feel comfortable in doing this, do not over supplement vitamins and minerals as this causes mass problems from head to toe, keep checking her feathers that they look well kept shiny and clean and are not puffed up (often this means the bird is feeling unwell) check the eyes aren't sunken and dull and that youcan't feel the keel bone too much, also definately consult your vet as there may be an underlying problem. Hope this helps
My son "rescued" a lost lovebird which has now become my pet. She had no toys at his house, so when she came to live with me I gave her all the old birds toys,swing etc. I had from my budgie that passed away a few years ago. She loves it! But I have had her for about three weeks now and she has started to lay eggs! She now has two! She has no hidey holes, just a bird buddy! I'm worried cause I don't know what to do with the eggs and "Lovey" is acting very aggressive!!! Help a new lovebird owner!!
I have two peach face love birds who are now having their 4th clutch in a little over a year. I'm really concerned for the mothers health. They're nursing their babies one day and kicking them out the next to lay another clutch. They are very devoted to each other so I'm really affraid to seperate them. Can you offer any suggestions?
I have a number of thoughts on this. I had a Cockatiel that kept laying eggs on the bottom of the cage. I would take them away and never gave her a nestbox. One day she became eggbound and in a very short period of time died. It was a terrible thing to go through. I also had peach-faced lovebirds. One of my females that was very tame began laying eggs. This continued and I decided to get her a male bird. How a bird will react to a bird of the opposite sex and the same species as them is often different than how they may act with another bird. The pair bonded and began having babies. The worse part about this is one you have a pair they are usually not friendly at all anymore, so if your bird now is nice and lets you hold it etc., it may not be that way if you get it a mate. Most birds that I have had did not lay eggs, but I did have a couple that did. With lovebirds they make nesting material out of anything paper they can get their little beaks on, so I don't know what you can do to stop that. My guess is even with the sandy paper it will still do that.
One of my birds is a parakeet that I adopted. We all thought he was a male but when "he" started laying eggs...oopps. She laid 4 once a month and I would have been over my head in chicks if I still had my male. I just let her go through her cycles naturally, let her roost on them for a couple, three weeks and then threw them away. She just went through "menopause" because the laying has stopped and she is happier, more friendly than she's ever been! Good luck with your birdie.
One of my birds is a parakeet that I adopted. We all thought he was a male but when "he" started laying eggs...oopps. She laid 4 once a month and I would have been over my head in chicks if I still had my male. I just let her go through her cycles naturally, let her roost on them for a couple, three weeks and then threw them away. She just went through "menopause" because the laying has stopped and she is happier, more friendly than she's ever been! Good luck with your birdie.
Same thing happening with me. I have a female - that I thought was a male, until I found an egg in the bottom of "his" cage! Since March of this year, she's laid a total of 24 eggs now! She just lays them everywhere - on the top of the cage, in between them, and a lot of the time in the bottom of the cockatiel's cage next to hers!
That seems to be her favorite spot. My cockatiel is a male, but seems to like having the eggs in his cage and will sit on them during the day while I'm at work. Altho lately, once the parakeet has been able to get in his cage, they've been fighting over them. My poor cockatiel has a bald patch on the back of his head where the parakeet has torn them out during their fights - which I've broken up.
She's laid eggs in her own cage - but seems to really like the cockatiel's cage for some reason for her nesting.
I'm pretty sure all the eggs are infertile - altho I do have a male parakeet. The female barely even sits on them and just leaves them where she lays them!
She's just an egg-laying machine it seems. I give her high-calcium grit in her food and she has a cuttle-bone in her cage (altho it doesn't look as if she's chewed much off of it).
I've raise parakeets since I was a little girl and have had many females over the years, and NONE of them were egg layers! So it was quite a bit of a shock for me to all of the sudden have this year-old parakeet that is just laying eggs like crazy.
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