Curious about egg laying

[justjenni1969]

So, I am a fairly new IRN mom. Inherited Ziva, a 2? y/o from my daughter about 5 months ago. Ziva is my first bird and we have had our ups and downs (including her flying out the door and MIA in the trees ,for 2 days), but dang if she isn't the cutest, fun pet I ever had.
In reading the forums here, I am curious about egg laying.
At what age will females start laying? And will they lay if they are a single bird? Do I need to prep her cage in anyway to make it easier if she does lay an egg? What do I do if she does lay an egg?
Any answers would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[MonicaMc]

You ask questions that have no one right answer...

At what age will females start laying?
Any age. Some start young. Some start mid life, some may start in old age and some may never lay.

And will they lay if they are a single bird?
Maybe. Maybe not.

Do I need to prep her cage in anyway to make it easier if she does lay an egg?
It's usually best to discourage reproduction if you aren't interested in breeding... don't feed soft foods, don't touch her in "inappropriate ways" (petting anywhere other than the head could potentially induce hormones in birds), don't keep her on a set year round schedule of 12 hrs of day & night, do allow the temperatures within the house to fluctuate some, etc.

Make sure she eats a healthy diet (pellets, sprouted seeds, healthy grains, healthy legumes, mixed vegetables, some fruits, occasional cooked eggs), and gets exercise. A healthy, fit bird is less likely to have egg laying problems than one not in the best of health.

What do I do if she does lay an egg?
You can change around her sleep hours, her diet, her cage, change the cage location and remove the eggs.

Likewise, you can leave the eggs and hope she gets bored of them and stop sitting on them. This can take 2-4 weeks...


If you remove the eggs, don't toss them out until you are 100% sure she wont lay any more!

 

[MikeyTN]

Monica made some really good points there! BUT IF there's a will there's a way no matter what you do. You can ignore them completely, move the location of the cage, cut the light, cover the cage, it really doesn't matter cause if she is going to lay, she will!!!! After 16 years of owning parrots, I've tried ALL kinds of methods to stop them from laying. It doesn't work! I've even moved them to be solitary with no toys of any sort or any type of nesting materials. I've tried them all. Sometimes you end up with bad consequences but just be sure to provide calcium supplements if she were to lay.

 

[justjenni1969]

Thanks! Ziva has been acting a bit different lately. Doing some weird dance thing with her head, and a bit more lovey than usual. I don't encourage her by petting her. I guess we will see what happens...

 

[Birdlover11]

I would feed her some calcium so the problem of egg binding would be less likely