laying eggs and pulling feathers

diadins · Jul 28, 2013

I am writing on behalf of my mom. She has a quaker that she rescued about 5 years ago. For the last 2 years Mia has been laying at least one egg every few months. She is the only bird in the home and has never been a breeder. Whenever she lays an egg she becomes extremely aggressive and begins to pluck her feathers out. It seems like as soon as she begins to recover she lays another egg. My mom has supplemented her diet, she is socialized and in between she is a friendly bird. Does anyone else have any experience with their quacker laying eggs and plucking?

crimson · Jul 28, 2013

that is a natural behaviour some birds do when nesting.....even though yours isn't it's just the hormones kicking in....typically the two go hand in hand. the hen will line the nest with her feathers for added warmth.

as for her laying eggs, she could be a chronic egg layer, I'm not sure if there is anything you can do for that, just make sure she is supplemented in calcium to prevent egg binding.

maybe someone else has some suggestions on the egg laying, sorry I couldn't be of more help

Pajarita · Jul 29, 2013

Your mother must be keeping her at a human light schedule and that's why she has become a chronic layer (which is very dangerous as she could become eggbound and even die). Quakers are not tropical parrots. The websites will tell you they are tropical or semi-tropical but they are wrong, they come from the temperate zone in South America and are VERY photoperiodic so they need to be kept at a strict solar schedule or they will produce sexual hormones all year round. A strict solar schedule is when they wake up with sunrise and go to bed with the sunset and have no artificial lights until after the sun is in the sky or when it's almost all the way down in the horizon. And this is the perfect time of the year to switch her because the summer solstice was only a month ago (it's when the days start getting shorter).

laying eggs and pulling feathers

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