[michellepark]

I have a male and a female cockatiel both very tame and more than 3 years old. They have together laid 6 eggs and are both very enthusiastically brooding. In fact, the male has completely changed personality wise and is borderline manic in his protective instincts. However, I candled all of the eggs yesterday and they all look the same ... meaning none of them are fertile. Is this possible? I've never witnessed their mating. I've never even witnessed the male court the female. I have witnessed the female basically throwing herself at the male who only politely preened her. This strikes me as a weird situation and I'm not sure whether to let them continue nesting.

 

[tielfan]

Yes, it's totally possible to have a clutch of infertile eggs even when the pair has been mating enthusiastically several times a day. The eggs are guaranteed to be infertile if the pair hasn't mated! Hens don't need much provocation to start laying eggs, and many will lay eggs without having either a mate or a nest. Most hens are noisy during mating, so it's kinda hard to miss it when they're really making babies.

Your pair is likely to start a new clutch when this one fails to hatch. It's desirable to prevent this unless they suddenly start mating, because laying infertile eggs is a useless drain on the hen's physical resources. You need to start working on this now, because it will be too late when the egg laying starts. This article has information on natural hormone control: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/info/breed-hormones.html