Cockatiel laying egg on floor

[Hamdiayadi]

Hello , I have two cockatiels one male and one female , I didn't plan to make them breed so i didn't have any nest box setup ... But yesterday I noticed the female layed an egg on the floor in one corner and i didn't want to interrupt and pick that egg at that time , when i returned later I found she rolled it under the desk and seems the egg got broken there ...

So now I'm not sure what to do , should I prepare a nest box ? They are very scared birds they get scared about every new thing , I'm not sure how they will handle something attached to their cage ... Will that stress her out and make egg laying more difficult ? Should I let her lay them on the floor since that seems to be her comfort zone? I'm not sure what to do about this , as I'm afraid introducing the nest box will make things worse instead of better , they get scared easily ...

Also I read that she should eat more calcium, and that's from eggs shell after you boil it , but wouldn't that could hurt the throat if those eggs shell gets torn into pieces? Any other alternatives? I read cuttlebone is good too i'm trying to get one but probably can't be very soon .

Now she is back to that corner , should i block that corner or anything that prevents her to go there ? Should i keep her in the cage or what go do ? There is papers close to corner should i remove them ? Would she be laying another egg now or she is just preparing ?I would appreciate the help as im getting all lost and confused

 

[LaManuka]

Hello , I have two cockatiels one male and one female , I didn't plan to make them breed so i didn't have any nest box setup ... But yesterday I noticed the female layed an egg on the floor in one corner and i didn't want to interrupt and pick that egg at that time , when i returned later I found she rolled it under the desk and seems the egg got broken there ...

So now I'm not sure what to do , should I prepare a nest box ? They are very scared birds they get scared about every new thing , I'm not sure how they will handle something attached to their cage ... Will that stress her out and make egg laying more difficult ? Should I let her lay them on the floor since that seems to be her comfort zone? I'm not sure what to do about this , as I'm afraid introducing the nest box will make things worse instead of better , they get scared easily ...

Also I read that she should eat more calcium, and that's from eggs shell after you boil it , but wouldn't that could hurt the throat if those eggs shell gets torn into pieces? Any other alternatives? I read cuttlebone is good too i'm trying to get one but probably can't be very soon .

Now she is back to that corner , should i block that corner or anything that prevents her to go there ? Should i keep her in the cage or what go do ? There is papers close to corner should i remove them ? Would she be laying another egg now or she is just preparing ?I would appreciate the help as im getting all lost and confused

I'm sorry you're going through these worries with your cockatiel. Do they both share a cage or are they housed separately? If they're together in the one cage you will need to get another, they can still have plenty of out-of-cage time together but having separate cages will help lessen the egg-laying.

I had a cockatiel hen many years ago who laid maybe 7 or 8 eggs during her entire 18 year lifetime, even though there was no male around. I never gave her a nestbox since I certainly didn't want to encourage her to lay, she just laid them on the bare floor of her cage anyway. She never laid an entire clutch, only one or two at a time, and i replaced them with dummy eggs in an attempt to prevent her laying more. However as you do have a male It's likely your hen is already developing another egg, she may lay a whole clutch of 4 or 5 before this cycle is over, in which case you can replace them with fake eggs. Do not remove the eggs if she's laying as this will only encourage her to lay even more. If you cannot get dummy eggs, you can take the eggs that she does lay and boil them, let them cool and give them back to her to sit on. This will allow her to sit on them for longer and hopefully she'll lose interest when she realises they're not going to hatch, and it also means if she breaks them after days or weeks you won't have a nasty mess to clean up. And cuttlebone is an excellent source of calcium if you can get one, though many pet stores sell mineral blocks that contain calcium too.

I hope this helps, please keep us updated and I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Hamdiayadi]

I'm sorry you're going through these worries with your cockatiel. Do they both share a cage or are they housed separately? If they're together in the one cage you will need to get another, they can still have plenty of out-of-cage time together but having separate cages will help lessen the egg-laying.

I had a cockatiel hen many years ago who laid maybe 7 or 8 eggs during her entire 18 year lifetime, even though there was no male around. I never gave her a nestbox since I certainly didn't want to encourage her to lay, she just laid them on the bare floor of her cage anyway. She never laid an entire clutch, only one or two at a time, and i replaced them with dummy eggs in an attempt to prevent her laying more. However as you do have a male It's likely your hen is already developing another egg, she may lay a whole clutch of 4 or 5 before this cycle is over, in which case you can replace them with fake eggs. Do not remove the eggs if she's laying as this will only encourage her to lay even more. If you cannot get dummy eggs, you can take the eggs that she does lay and boil them, let them cool and give them back to her to sit on. This will allow her to sit on them for longer and hopefully she'll lose interest when she realises they're not going to hatch, and it also means if she breaks them after days or weeks you won't have a nasty mess to clean up. And cuttlebone is an excellent source of calcium if you can get one, though many pet stores sell mineral blocks that contain calcium too.

I hope this helps, please keep us updated and I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you for the insights, first I didn't think about having them in seperate cage since most of the time they spend it outside of cage and only at nighttime they go there, should i still have them in seperate cage and I shouldn't let her outside of cage this period ?

Also I couldn't get fake eggs didn't find any on pet stores they don't sell birds stuff here usually besides the food .. but even if I was able to get them , should I replace them and put them on the floor where she laid them ? Based on the last time , the egg got broken because she rolled it under the desk, should I cover that space to not let her hide it there ?

Also , I didn't think there was a problem to let them have babies that's why i thought of the nest box although i won't be able to handle feeding them but i'm under the assumption that the parents will be able to take care of them.. the parents are 3 years old ... Is there a danger or something I need to worry about if I wanted to let them have those babies from the eggs she is laying ? Should I consider replacing some with fake so they don't end up with many ? Or is this not a good approach to have them have babies at this time?

 

[LaManuka]

Thank you for the insights, first I didn't think about having them in seperate cage since most of the time they spend it outside of cage and only at nighttime they go there, should i still have them in seperate cage and I shouldn't let her outside of cage this period ?

Also I couldn't get fake eggs didn't find any on pet stores they don't sell birds stuff here usually besides the food .. but even if I was able to get them , should I replace them and put them on the floor where she laid them ? Based on the last time , the egg got broken because she rolled it under the desk, should I cover that space to not let her hide it there ?

Also , I didn't think there was a problem to let them have babies that's why i thought of the nest box although i won't be able to handle feeding them but i'm under the assumption that the parents will be able to take care of them.. the parents are 3 years old ... Is there a danger or something I need to worry about if I wanted to let them have those babies from the eggs she is laying ? Should I consider replacing some with fake so they don't end up with many ? Or is this not a good approach to have them have babies at this time?

I recommend separate cages as it will lessen opportunities for your birds to mate, and it will also give your hen somewhere to retreat to if your male gets aggressive with her. In the past I have had a male and female cockatiel, and the male would get VERY aggressive towards the female when he got hormonal, to the point where it actually became quite dangerous for her. This may or may not happen with yours, but having a separate cage for your hen means you can keep her safe if it does. Obviously they can still interact outside the cage, but you should supervise them to make sure they're not mating. By all means you can block her from going into that space under the desk again, but she'll likely find another spot or just lay her eggs on the floor of the cage like my hen did. Even so, cockatiels are one of those species that are a bit more likely to lay eggs, whether there's a male around or not, they're quite notorious for it.

Not all pet birds make good parents, even in the wild sometimes it takes a few failed attempts before they get it right. Pet birds don't get to experience how to go about raising babies, as they are often taken from their parents when they're too young so they don't understand what's required of them when it comes to brooding babies. Some of it is instinct for sure, and some pet birds do successfully raise their own young. But much of it is learned by watching the example of others in the flock, so pet birds are not necessarily going to know what they need to do in terms of feeding babies etc, therefore if the eggs do hatch you would need to be prepared to intervene. Fake eggs can be hard to find, but I've actually used egg-shaped pieces of quartz that worked just fine! Boiling the eggs works too, it will (obviously) prevent them from hatching, but it also makes the the shell more resistant to breakage.

I have never had birds who have laid fertile eggs or hatched babies, so others would have to help you if yours do hatch and you run into any difficulties. The link below was written by one of our members with extensive experience in breeding birds, so it should give you some insight as to what you should be prepared for if your 'tiels do manage to breed....

Before I start to breed...