[Rachel&Amelia]

So my 2 year old cockatiel surprised me this morning by having an egg in the bottom of her cage. She has no mate, has no nest, and the egg is cracked against the bars on the bottom of the cage, likely because it fell from the perch she sits on most of the time. She has shown no interest in it, and there is a chance it was there yesterday and I may not have noticed it because she hasn't gone near it that I've seen or noticed. I was wondering what I should do at this point? Do I throw the egg away now or wait and let her possibly develop broodiness and sit on it? Or is she headed for getting broody no matter what. When I say she has no interest in it, she has none. She likes the mid level and top of her cage anyway and never goes to the bottom and that behavior has not changed. She got out today and flew around like normal and is pooping, eating, drinking like normal. Even resting on my shoulder and beak grinding like always. Nothing has changed in her behavior. I'm far more concerned with this egg than her by the way it seems.

She has been displaying some hormonal behaviors lately. I limited her day light hours and removed a certain toy she was far too fond of last week after she kept lifting her vent and chirping at it.

She has displayed some horomonal behavior like this before though and it always goes away with some strict daylight hours, (limited from 12 to 10) and moving items around. I had just moved her into a larger cage so I wasn't expecting to need to move things around as I figured that would have been an endrun to any of that.

She is my first mature female cockatiel and I just want advice on how best to handle a situation that sort of had me freaking out this morning. (After all you always read all these horror stories about chronic egg laying or egg binding in cockatiels and it would break my heart for anything bad to happen to her!) I attached pictures of the egg situation and of my girl like an hour ago acting totally normal and like she isn't trying to worry me to death. haha

 

[cockatiels4life]

Hi For a lone female to lay an egg is normal, take the egg out and put it in hot water make it sterile put it back in the cage or she may lay again . Some people have a bird from breeder stock and they put plastic eggs in the bottom off the cage keep all dark cubby holes out from the cage. She be fine Thanks David

 

[OddreyWithBird]

Its normal for them to pay no attention at first. if she does lay another egg she will most likely sit on it. as for it being cracked i have no idea. could be malnutrition.