Chronic egg laying

[Allylang1]

I have a question about my parakeet laying eggs constantly. She?s 3 1/2 years old and started laying eggs within the last 6-7 months. It started about six months after I got my Conure. They don?t spend time outside of their cages together because they don?t get along. This is her fifth time laying eggs since that time. I wait a few days after she lays her eggs before I remove them, she shows no interest in them. This time however, she started laying eggs again a couple days after I removed them. Should I get dummy eggs for her?

 

[LaManuka]

I have a question about my parakeet laying eggs constantly. She's 3 1/2 years old and started laying eggs within the last 6-7 months. It started about six months after I got my Conure. They don't spend time outside of their cages together because they don't get along. This is her fifth time laying eggs since that time. I wait a few days after she lays her eggs before I remove them, she shows no interest in them. This time however, she started laying eggs again a couple days after I removed them. Should I get dummy eggs for her?

Oh geez, this sounds like it might be a tough one to manage. Does your parakeet have access to a nesting site, or anything that even remotely resembles one? They don't, of course, need this to stimulate egg laying - I once had a cockatiel who would just lay them on the bare floor of her cage, but she was not nearly as chronic as your parakeet. Continued egg production like this can lead to all sorts of undesirable complications with health so you definitely do need to try to stop it. You can buy dummy eggs from various different vendors but the site linked below does seem to offer some pretty convincing substitutes...

DummyEggs.com, Dummy Eggs Help Stop Egg Laying in Pet Birds! Fake Eggs, Solid Plastic Eggs in all sizes.

I have dummy eggs on standby for my lorikeet hen who is a mad keen infertile egg layer, although happily she has been egg-free for about 18 months or so now. Budgies generally incubate eggs for a little under 3 weeks and should lost interest of their own accord after that time when they realise nothing is hatching. Some species don't show a great deal of interest in the eggs until the last one of that clutch is laid, so perhaps that explains why your budgie doesn't seem to be that interested in them initially. I would definitely be substituting dummy eggs if I was in your situation. Once this current phase of egg laying is over, any nesting material or access to anything that even resembles it would need to be removed.

Wishing you the very best of luck with your hen, please let us know how she goes!

 

[Allylang1]

Thank you so much for your response! Yeah she just lays them from her perch and they’re breaking so I hate to leave them in for a long time… How long do you leave the dummy eggs in there? She hadn’t laid eggs in five days so I removed them in the next day there was another egg!

 

[LaManuka]

Thank you so much for your response! Yeah she just lays them from her perch and they?re breaking so I hate to leave them in for a long time? How long do you leave the dummy eggs in there? She hadn?t laid eggs in five days so I removed them in the next day there was another egg!

It's difficult if they're breaking, broken eggs should not be left with her. If you do manage to get one that's intact you can boil it to make it a little more resilient to her sitting on it while awaiting the arrival of the dummy eggs. IF she does sit on them, you'd have to leave them with her for a good three weeks and perhaps a little more until she realises nothing is going to hatch. She *should* lose interest by herself, but having said that, my lorikeet is SUCH a determined sitter that I swear she would still be sitting on hers from December 2019 if it was up to her!

If it does continue even beyond this current phase and after the introduction of the dummy eggs, it might be best to consult your avian vet for a health check and to get some professional advice.

 

[Allylang1]

I appreciate your help. She has never tried sitting on them and has nothing she can nest in at all. She does get obsessed with toys so I switch them out pretty regularly. If she?s not sitting on them, should I not bother with dummy eggs? Looks like a vet visit is in order?

 

[LaManuka]

It may be a case of the eggs being removed prematurely, before she has completed laying her whole clutch, which if they're breaking you don't have much option but to do. A breeder friend tells me that budgie hens often won't start to sit on their eggs until they've laid around 4, so this may explain why she doesn't show interest from the start. I would still invest in the dummy eggs because it's just really handy to have them available straight away when the need arises. Since your hen has already laid quite a few, a visit to the avian vet may indeed be in order so that her condition can be properly and professionally assessed

 

[Allylang1]

I think you are right about removing them prematurely. She usually lays 3 eggs over a 6 day period and then I remove them. I just bought the dummy eggs, so hopefully that will do the trick! Thanks again for all of your useful information! I never had an egg layer before!

 

[LaManuka]

Anytime, Ally, I hope it does the trick too and helps you and your little hen!

 

[noodles123]

If you are not already doing these things---These all apply forever for any adult bird (with or without chronic laying):


1. 10 hours sleep each night in a dark quiet space and on a schedule= essential for regulating hormones and immune health.


2. Pet on the head and neck only. The rest is reserved for their sexual partner.


3. Remove access to any shadowy spaces in or around the cage (boxes, huts, tents, nesting materials like paper shreds, blankets, pillows, hollow cavities, low shelves, under furniture, hampers, tubes, even couches (because they are enclosed) NEVER partially cover the cage prior to lights off (unless in cases of medical shock or out of necessity during extreme transport situations) and do not use cages with shelf tops/covered tops--- they create a giant nesting space. For indoor birds, you want light on all sides of the cage during the day. At bedtime, cage should not be covered until lights off and if you do not cover, you should have blackout curtains in the room--- you do not want them to be able to see that the outside of their cage is lighter than the inside....DO NOT let your bird see you removing these---- they do like them/tend to get obsessed with them but they do not need a special place to sleep and the obsession is linked to hormones.


4. Buy some dummy eggs and when the bird isn't looking, swap out the real for the fake because that way, if the bird keeps interest, you can ensure that it won't break or get smelly. My vet said to leave eggs for a minimum of 2 weeks even if no obvious interest is shown (unless they throw them out of the cage themselves)-- Someone already said this, but here is an amazon link https://www.amazon.com/DummyEggs-Stop-Laying-Fake-Bird/dp/B077C9TMNH -- these should be kept on-hand just in case you have another clutch.



This one kind of depends but should be avoided in general: warm mushy foods can be a trigger--- they mimic regurgitation.

 

[Allylang1]

Thank you as of now all the above are being done. Just waiting on those dummy eggs to come in?