Egg-laying cockatiel

Hi everyone,

Today I found an egg in my room. I just returned from a weekend away on Tuesday, so I believe Berry laid it the day before I left (last week Thursday), since that was the last time she was out of the cage. It could have been before this, earlier last week. She laid it on top of my bookshelf (lol). I’m pretty glad I found it when I did. I really don’t know why she laid an egg, since I do everything I can to prevent hormonal behaviour (no nest box or materials, shorter daylight hours, etc.)

My mom has been caring for the birds whilst I have been away, and has not noticed anything too abnormal. However, we both noticed that she has big, looser stools, and is pooping less often. I know this is typical of egg-laying females, but she is yet to lay another egg. My mom found nothing in the cage over the weekend, she cleaned it daily.

The last time she laid an egg (about 7 months ago), she laid one and that was that. I am obviously just as worried this time about her becoming egg bound. I am making sure to give her calcium rich foods. I know they usually lay every 4 or so days, and since I know it must have been laid either last Thursday or before, it has been nearly a week (or longer).

What else do you think I should do to ensure her safety during this time? I have dealt with this before but it still worries me!

Oh Berry you’re so naughty for worrying your mum this way!

I’ve had two female cockatiels so far, Kang was a random egg-layer but Twinkle never laid an egg in her life. Kang did not have access to any nesty hidey holes or much in the way of nesting material (unless you count a few sheets of paper towel on the bottom of her cage, clearly she did!) Any time she laid an egg I’d replace it with a dummy one and let her sit on that until she realised it wasn’t going to hatch and lost interest. Occasionally she’d lay a second one but I’d just leave her with the one dummy egg to work our her maternal instincts on.

Kang did get eggbound once and I helped her get the egg out with a little olive oil massaged into her cloaca and thankfully it passed without further incident. She probably laid about 7 or 8 eggs over her 17 year lifetime, mostly when she was quite young. I couldn’t find any cockatiel-sized dummy eggs at the time but I had a nice collection of semi-precious tumbled gemstones and I let Kang sit on my egg-shaped piece of jade which happened to be the perfect size. The fact that it was green didn’t bother her one bit!

My laying Cockatiel hens layed 1 egg every 2 days.
I had 2 sterile clutches and 2 fertil clutches.