How may eggs until I should be concerned?

[Nakiska]

Hey all, as you may have read in my previous post, our cockatiel Sweet Pea laid an egg. Well, THAT egg I did remove as she didn't show any interest in it and it was cracked, as she laid it on the top of her cage and it fell to the floor.

Anyway, since then she's laid an egg on January 1, 3, 5, 7 and today! For a total of 6 eggs.

Her 5 eggs that she currently has, she does fiddle with them, sometimes she sets on them, but not usually for long. She's very happy, healthy, good appetite, comes out of her cage to play. So I'm not concerned with her, health wise....however...I'm wondering how many eggs might she lay and when should I become concerned?

We are not promoting nesting behavior, these eggs are non fertile, they are sitting on the bottom corner of the cage.

I've never experienced this before, as I've always had male birds.

Thanks so much,

Toni

 

[Pedro]

She has laid her clutch now & shouldn't lay more eggs this time round (I hope). I had a hen lay 17 fertile eggs once. That was fun finding foster mums. Leave her with the eggs for approx 18 to 21 days or until she loses interest in them, then throw them away. She should be fine if you have a calcium supplement available.

 

[Spiritbird]

You should be mindful of the number of eggs laid as this depletes the calcium levels. I would ask this question of an avian vet to be sure. She is your baby.

 

[MikeyTN]

Just like Pedro says, provide calcium supplements like oyster shell, cuttle bone, mineral blocks, etc. My solitary female who give me beautiful babies this past year is still laying eggs by herself. We don't take her out nor pay attention to her as she started with her mating thing again. She laid eggs anyway.....im letting her sit on them until she's tired of them....

 

[Nakiska]

Thank you sooo much!

I'm not terribly concerned yet, I just thought her clutch would be between 3-5 eggs. I was shocked to see her lay another today.

She has a cuttlebone in her cage and she's using it on top of a well rounded diet with lots of fresh veggies and fruit. She loves broccoli, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes and squash which are among her favorites.

Thanks again, this is all so new to me!

Toni

 

[henpecked]

Hand raised pet cockatiels make terrible parents IMO.Something gets screwed up in the handraising phase of their life that leads to problems like this.I have a flight full of parent raised breeder Tiels and they NEVER lay eggs until i pair them and put in breeder cage with nest box.Some of the hand raised hens i've used in the past have laid unbelievable numbers of fertile eggs.Laid more eggs while hatching chick and all sorts of crazy stuff. Hopefully your pet hen will be satisfied she has a clutch and stop laying. I agree with the advice given,let her sit them and offer calcium rich products.But be aware there can be no rhyme or reason to many of actions of handraised hen cockatiels.

 

[cindylou_38]

Sorry its all said, no more to add.

 

[Nakiska]

So, I thought I'd post an update, just because...not really looking for advice I don't think...just updating all my friends here...since I posted this original post 21 days ago...our dear sweet Sweet Pea has laid another 7 eggs!!!! (for a total of 13 eggs!!!)

She's healthy, happy, active, looks great...but I can't help but be a little bit concerned. She has a cuttlebone, and she uses it, I also feed lots of veggies, little bit of seed and zupreem pellets. So I'm not concerned at all that she's not getting enough nutrition...but I am concerned about the overall strain physically to her body laying this many eggs.

She has absolutely NO nesting material in her cage, NO shredding toys, no dark corners, no huts, tents or covers of any sort to encourage nesting. Her eggs are all over the cage bottom. She moves them all around and sets on them several times a day. She seems to have kicked 3 eggs out as they are never with the rest, I'm thinking it's safe to remove those 3, leaving her with 9 unfertile eggs. (although, it is rather comical to watch her try to set on all 12 before she kicked out 3)

I limit her light, hoping she'll quit laying...and...well...as you can tell...she's still laying, just about every other day.

We have 2 male tiels, one lives downstairs and the other in the same room as Sweet Pea but on the opposite side of the room. Could him just being in the room be causing her to continue laying?

I just can't believe it...when she laid her first egg...I thought she'd lay 3 - 5...but 13 total...yeah...wasn't expecting this at all!!:20:

Toni

 

[MikeyTN]

Unfortunately that tend to happen with Cockatiel hens...chronic egg laying...I've basically left my female alone in a cage by herself with no birds near by nor can she see them. I avoided contact with her and cut her light. She lays regardless...but she finally quit thank goodness....

 

[rosella]

the other male could be having an effect on her but that is not always the case, sometimes it is just their "season"....with that being said as long as she is getting all the necassary nutrients and calcium she should be fine but keep limiting lights and try moving the male to another room and see what happens. many people say that laying eggs depletes calcium and this is true but IMHO if your feeding calcium supplements thats not something to worry about because she can regain it as fast as she lays it with all the supplements. good luck