nesting material how much is enough?

nial8r · Aug 10, 2013

Hi my mask love birds have been busy making there nests and already have eggs but they sre still taking more materials up to there boxes and seems some of the eggs have been covered. Should I stop giving the material to nest with or let them keep going ? Any help would be great.
Regards
Lee

crimson · Aug 10, 2013

gosh, I hope they aren't using newspaper....it tends to turn into paper mache over time and can stuck on the chicks....I had that happen to 5 of my chicks and all 5 almost died, fortunately I pulled them in time and over then next hour my daughter and I slowly removed the nesting material that had literally turned into cement.

If you can, gently pick up the eggs and place them on top of the nesting material, they know exactly how much they need to make a nest.
Providing aspen shavings, or care fresh is the safest material.

Betrisher · Aug 10, 2013

I give my Lovies fresh material every day, including shredded paper and fresh-cut long grass. They need to keep a level of humidity around the eggs and greenstuff works quite well for that. Sometimes I give broccoli leaves, parsnip leaves or silverbeet in small quantities. What they don't eat finds its way into the nest boxes.

Otherwise, you can mist-spray around the nest. I'd be too nervous to do that myself, so I just offer grass and everyone's happy.

If the eggs are being covered by nesting material, perhaps the eggs aren't fertile or have died? The hen will usually roll the eggs each day and housekeeps quite effectively as she adds extra nesting material to cover that which is squashed and soiled. HTH.

nial8r · Aug 10, 2013

I have given them a little shredded paper but mostly fresh grass everyday on top of a mix of straw etc but they just keep loading there boxes up. So I should just keep giving them material and they will stop when there happy

MikeyTN · Aug 10, 2013

I personally would stop giving them anymore nesting materials. I usually just mist the eggs with s spray bottle. You can mist once per day.

nial8r · Aug 10, 2013

Thanks mikey. What does the misting do?

MikeyTN · Aug 11, 2013

It promotes humidity for the eggs to incubate properly, you would have lesser of a chance of losing babies within the eggs if you mist. It also helps them hatch out at the proper time schedule or even earlier. I have some hatching out 5 days ahead of schedule in the past.

JadeB · Aug 11, 2013

When my birds had eggs they kept jamming more and more into the nest box. Finally they had like half the box full, lol. There was still room for themselves and the eggs were on top. I was too afraid to mist the eggs so I had a humidifier by the cage to keep it at 75% humidity (I live in the desert). Turned out the eggs were not fertile anyway.

nial8r · Aug 11, 2013

Mine have started to cover the eggs with nesting material so I think ill stop giving them anymore. .

nesting material how much is enough?

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