[Cokati]

Hi,

Angel layed her first egg on May 16th 2018. There was blood on the egg and on her so I took her to the vet and he said it appears she forced too much for the egg to come out. We then gave her medications and he told me to increase absolute darkness. I kept the egg for 3 weeks.

On January 6th 2019, she layed her second egg only this time she's reacting like it was nothing. Not feeling tired, being normal, etc... I kept the egg in the bottom of the cage for 3 weeks then removed it.

On February 14th/15 2019, I woke up and found an egg in her cup food. Now I don't know if she already layed it on the evening of the 14th. I took the egg out of the cup food and put it on the bottom of the cage. I will keep the egg for 3 weeks again.

I'm very concerned why she has layed 2 eggs in winter season where daylight is very short. Her cage is next to a window. The thing is she's too stubborn to chew or play with something. All she does most of the time is make a whining noise like a call or she needs something. Her food are her seed along with Lafeber's pellets canary sizes. She hardly eats fruits and vegetables I tried so much to feed her but no success. She eats a few white egg and corn. One thing I've noticed a lot is she likes to be around or inside a cabinet then starts making small chirping sounds. And obviously when she's in the cage she tries to sit her pellets and look likes she's nesting and so I stop her when I see her. As of today she's 3 years old, born in early January 2016.

I can provide photos or videos for everything about her if needed.
I would just appreciate help to stop egg laying please as we all want to give a better health span for our cuties.

Thank you.

 

[Darkel777]

I would keep her away from the cabinets since that is someplace she may decide is suitable to nest. The chirping sounds are usually a call to attract a male. They will usually sit hunched over waiting for a male to fertilize her eggs. With blood on the egg I would worry about prolapse, so watch her closely. Dummy eggs are something to look into, or old eggs for her to sit on. It might reduce the number she ultimately lays.

 

[Cokati]

All the 3 eggs layed so far have been no interest for her, she ignores them. I just would like help how to stop this as she's sitting in her food still and drinking lots of water. I read once somewhere about water helps develop eggs. The first egg had blood but I took her to the vet. The other 2 eggs did not have blood.

Few questions...
Does having the cage next to a window affect her for egg laying?
When we say darkness, does that mean more sleeping or something else?
Should I limit her drinking water?

 

[Cokati]

Oh no. She just layed another egg. I woke up and there was another one next to the one from 2 days ago. She either layed it yesterday evening in the dark or this morning.

 

[Juribe]

Hi, there is another comment about implanting hormone controlling medicine to stop her laying eggs, here is the link:

https://www.talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=159492&p=1428876&utm_source=threadloom&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ed746&utm_content=iss30

Good luck...

 

[frozengirl]

even If the days are shorter, if you are keeping her awake longer then 12 hours (when the sun goes down) she will feel like conditions are favourable. You need to make it unfavourable. Increase her sleep time to 14 hours for two weeks at the first sign of hormones. When she doesn’t seem hormonal , make sure she has 12 hours of sleep. Try moving / changing her cage setup. If she is master bating with her food dishes, try dishes she can’t sit in. Mess less bird feeder comes to mind. Don’t let her have a nest, don’t give her anything that stimulates her. If she puts her butt in the air and does rapid chirps, she’s stimulated. Dark corners are nesty areas and may cause hormones to thrive. Manipulate the environment so she feels less safe. Her eating only seeds and pellets is a problem, high protein and fat diets are telling her body it’s perfect to breed. Try sprouting if you honestly can’t get her to eat veges. ( are you putting fresh veges in her cage every single day? You need to be persistent or they won’t try it ) If you notice she is master bating on hanging toys that touch her back, hang them against the wall of the cage near her perch. Sometimes boredom will make them more hormonal as well. Is she getting lots of time out of the cage besides in the cupboard? Play music , whistle for her, show her some crinkled paper, pretend to play with her toys with your hands... let her preen your hair , teach her some tricks, teach her to play with toys and forage etc. Don’t touch her back, only pet her head. Yes you can teach her to play with target training. She needs toys she can shred and chew apart, a busy beak is a happy beak.

Introduce foraging. Start easy by cutting small pieces of paper on top of her seeds, seed dish. Make it so she can see her reward and make her work for it by removing things , hide millet in a finger trap so she has to chew it apart to eat the millet. Hide millet in a vine ball and hang that.

Sometimes you can’t stop nature. Normally a tiel laying one or two eggs a year isn’t a problem if they exercise daily and eat well . Do make sure your pellets have calcium. Sprinkle some extra cuttlebone dust on her cooked boiled eggs when she is laying . Weigh her so u know when an egg is forming.

Lastly , speak to the vet about why she was pushing the egg. Was it not formed enough? Lack of calcium? Or just too big? You can get shots which help some tiels . Good luck!