Egg Woes

[Amandala]

Hello, my Willow is inherited from a family member who passed and unfortunately had a loud chaotic envrinment. She has been plucking for years and has a hard habit.

We have had her two years now and starting in Feb, she has consistently been laying 1-2 eggs, even with a decoy. Once the allotted month or so has passed, she will start talking again and being her normal self. Then she heads back down to start her process. We are not on holding terms with her, aside from a handful of times and her bites break skin.

Most recently she has taken to doing a high pitch chirp and ringing a bell on once of her toys as if she is trying to wake the babies that will never come. Its pretty depressing imagining her in distress. There is no mating behavior taking place aside from her back end up in the air while she is by her eggs. And of course she is trying to bite more and harder and won't come out of her cage unless coaxed with a special treat.

Sorry so long but I'm at a loss and I worry about her calcium because of the eggs. Thank you for reading!

 

[HeatherG]

Maybe feed extra calcium powder, baked eggshells, or cuttlebone scraped over soft food.

Poor Willow. Her eggs aren’t peeping at her as they would if there was a chick inside so I’m guessing she figures out that something isn’t right. Maybe you need to have “the talk” with her…

No, I’m kidding. I’m not sure what you could do to fix this problem of egg laying and being unfriendly. Have you tried cutting back her daylight hours, eliminating any nest areas or shreddable materials, cutting back on rich or carb-heavy foods? Those elements of a great nest site turn her body on to producing and laying eggs.

Another option your vet could discuss further are Lupron shots, which are “anti-hormone” shots. I don’t know if one or two eggs every month or two are enough reason for Lupron shots. If her broodiness is otherwise affecting her health, maybe it is?

I have a Willow, too, but he’s a blue Quaker boy. He is also romantically interested in two of his toys. Luckily he can’t lay eggs, or we might have a problem.

 

[saxguy64]

Hello and welcome to you and Willow!

First, thank you for taking in this lovely girl, and looking for answers. ❤️ She has a lot going on for sure. So many things to consider.

Plucking is very complex, and there's a wide variety of causes. As it's a long time habit in her case, you may or may not be able to break the cycle. Has she been to an avian vet? That's your go-to in terms of medical issues that may have caused the plucking. A thorough exam with blood work and testing for various diseases/viruses/bacteria/fungal infection might find the root of the cause. Admittedly, it may not, but good to have baseline values on file in case of illness later on. What's her diet like? I'm sure you're aware that ekkies have different requirements from other parrots. There's definitely things you can do with diet that can be helpful for plucking, as well as hormonal behavior. As mentioned above, how much uninterrupted sleep does she get every night?

Diet and sleep cycle very much play into the hormonal behavior as well, so maybe if you tell us what an average day in the life looks like, we can make some suggestions.

I wouldn't worry too much just yet about contact. Ekkies are rather known for not being cuddly hands on type of birds, and a nesting hen... Not so much. They'll tend to be very protective of their space. It's what they do in the wild, so you're not likely to change that, just understand and work with it. Also a good point by Heather, are you providing any kind of nest site for her to continue laying in? If so, toss it, it's just going to promote more of the behavior.

Looking forward to more info and updates, and if you wish to share, we love pictures here! (And those gorgeous ekkies... ❤️)