Chronic Egg Laying

[greatbilledzeke]

Please help! My solo female Great Billed Parrot is about to lay her third clutch of unfertilized eggs since May and I'm getting worried about her health.

The first two eggs she laid broke on the cage floor so I replaced them with dummy eggs, but she did not accept those as her own. She may have wanted to replace the eggs because she laid a second clutch a few weeks later. My avian vet recommended I keep the eggs in the cage for three weeks until she loses interest, so I got her a small flat dog bed so the eggs didn't break again. She has been dedicated laying on the eggs for the past two weeks, only coming up to eat and poo.

With just one more week to go, I woke up today to see another bulge near her vent, making me think she's about to lay another egg soon. I've done everything my vet has recommended, by making sure she gets 12-14 hours of uninterrupted sleep in the dark, adjusting her diet with less fatty foods and treats, rearranging her cage, and making sure to never pet her anywhere but her head. This will potentially be her 5th egg in the span of two months and I can't figure out if it's something I'm doing wrong.

Does anyone have any final suggestions before I resort to getting her a hormone injection? She gets really stressed out going to the vet so I'm trying to avoid that unless it's absolutely necessary.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Please help! My solo female Great Billed Parrot is about to lay her third clutch of unfertilized eggs since May and I'm getting worried about her health.

The first two eggs she laid broke on the cage floor so I replaced them with dummy eggs, but she did not accept those as her own. She may have wanted to replace the eggs because she laid a second clutch a few weeks later. My avian vet recommended I keep the eggs in the cage for three weeks until she loses interest, so I got her a small flat dog bed so the eggs didn't break again. She has been dedicated laying on the eggs for the past two weeks, only coming up to eat and poo.

With just one more week to go, I woke up today to see another bulge near her vent, making me think she's about to lay another egg soon. I've done everything my vet has recommended, by making sure she gets 12-14 hours of uninterrupted sleep in the dark, adjusting her diet with less fatty foods and treats, rearranging her cage, and making sure to never pet her anywhere but her head. This will potentially be her 5th egg in the span of two months and I can't figure out if it's something I'm doing wrong.

Does anyone have any final suggestions before I resort to getting her a hormone injection? She gets really stressed out going to the vet so I'm trying to avoid that unless it's absolutely necessary.

It seems unlikely she would lay another egg two weeks into incubating a clutch but stranger things have happened. Female birds and their gyn problems make me wish I only had males! That said, five eggs in two months isn't so excessive that it seems overly dangerous (budgies often lay six per clutch), and it sounds like you've tried all the usual recommendations. I'd take her to the vet for a check up and discuss the hormone shots but I recently read a thread where it didn't help much. Personally I would try them if I had a chronic egg layer when nothing else helped. I wonder how chickens can lay as many eggs as they do without problems. Best wishes to you and your girlie.

 

[LeaKP]

Ive had a similar situation with my grey. What i did was first, let her keep her eggs but also have plenty of out of cage time. More hours out than in. Sunshine, play, and lots of calcium. She did stop laying and I’m so glad. But the avian vet can give medication to make her stop if it can’t be controlled. All the best!

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

My cockatiel is a chronic egg layer and I've been able to stop her laying so many. I remove the eggs as soon as I realise she's laid them and I don't let her try and nest. When I wake up I get the birds out of their cages, especially her if she's trying to make nests at the bottom of the cage. I limit her seed to half a teaspoon a day, one teaspoon of pellets and the rest is chop. She hasn't laid an egg in weeks since doing this, and she was laying 2-3 a week for months before that.