Cockatiel just laid unfertlized egg

Pechow

You'll want to leave the egg in there, as she'll very likely try to replace it and keep laying if you take it away. She'll eventually get bored of it after a while when she realises it won't hatch.

Give her cuttlefish if she doesn't have it already, and crushed oyster shell (or a smushed up hard boiled egg, with shell) if you like will help replace her calcium levels too, which is important.

If you want to try and reduce her hormonal levels, and so stop her laying eggs, the best methods are to remove all nesting material (they don't need boxes etc to sleep in, though you can't stop them trying to lay in food bowls etc ) and to give her 12 hours of darkness a day. This mimics the light cycle of the darker months, when they don't breed. More light = trigger for hormonal behaviours and egg laying.

Part_Mouse

Pechow wrote: »

You'll want to leave the egg in there, as she'll very likely try to replace it and keep laying if you take it away. She'll eventually get bored of it after a while when she realises it won't hatch.

Give her cuttlefish if she doesn't have it already, and crushed oyster shell (or a smushed up hard boiled egg, with shell) if you like will help replace her calcium levels too, which is important.

If you want to try and reduce her hormonal levels, and so stop her laying eggs, the best methods are to remove all nesting material (they don't need boxes etc to sleep in, though you can't stop them trying to lay in food bowls etc ) and to give her 12 hours of darkness a day. This mimics the light cycle of the darker months, when they don't breed. More light = trigger for hormonal behaviours and egg laying.

Thanks for the reply, shes still sitting on her egg this morning. She went into the budgies cage last night and laid the egg, poor budgie wants to go home.

Iv'e tried giving her egg and shell but she wasn't keen, will try again though.

Pechow

Aww, birds can be hilarious sometimes. Maybe move the egg to her own cage somewhere where she can sit on it? If she doesn't, then hopefully if she lays another egg it will be in her own cage where she's not disturbing budgie

They can be difficult to persuade, yes have you tried mixed it in with seed, or even with millet to tempt her to try it?

Part_Mouse

Pechow wrote: »

Aww, birds can be hilarious sometimes. Maybe move the egg to her own cage somewhere where she can sit on it? If she doesn't, then hopefully if she lays another egg it will be in her own cage where she's not disturbing budgie

They can be difficult to persuade, yes have you tried mixed it in with seed, or even with millet to tempt her to try it?

She did eat quiet a bit of egg earlier thankfully and iv'e moved her egg into her own cage which she's siting on, looks very sweet all cuddled up. I wonder if she will lay anymore?

Pechow

Would love a picture if you were able, love parrots and she sounds very cute at the moment!

She might lay a few more, they don't usually lay just one, but she also might think "enough" if she has something to sit on and doesn't usually lay eggs. It's good that she ate some egg too! How old is she?

pinkcandyflossprincess

please keep an eye on her bottom end to check she doesnt get egg bound, otherwise keep her well fed on veg and greens etc, maybe make up a mash . you can buy egg protein from the petshops to mix in, we use it on our lovebirds when they are laying (although ours are fertilised )
bless her though...we just lost one of our cockatiels to flu sadly, he was happy as anything the night before so not to put a downer on your thread but birds mask illness very well so if she did become egg bound its something you should keep a vigilant check on
xx

Part_Mouse

pinkcandyflossprincess wrote: »

please keep an eye on her bottom end to check she doesnt get egg bound, otherwise keep her well fed on veg and greens etc, maybe make up a mash . you can buy egg protein from the petshops to mix in, we use it on our lovebirds when they are laying (although ours are fertilised )
bless her though...we just lost one of our cockatiels to flu sadly, he was happy as anything the night before so not to put a downer on your thread but birds mask illness very well so if she did become egg bound its something you should keep a vigilant check on
xx

Thanks, keeping a close eye on her.

Part_Mouse

Pechow wrote: »

Would love a picture if you were able, love parrots and she sounds very cute at the moment!

She might lay a few more, they don't usually lay just one, but she also might think "enough" if she has something to sit on and doesn't usually lay eggs. It's good that she ate some egg too! How old is she?

Will try and get a piccy of her. Not sure how old she is as she's a rescue.

Part_Mouse

Pink so sorry to hear about your tiel

pinkcandyflossprincess

Part_Mouse wrote: »

Pink so sorry to hear about your tiel

yeah it was quite heart breaking:( we have a cockatiel called sunny who we got from a petshop whos allways been a bit nervy, shaky etc but think it was due to being aviary bred...shes got a lovely personality when you cuddle her but she looses feathers etc.
well cookie (rip) was offered to me as a rehome as a hopefull friend for sunny, sunny didnt seemed interested or disinterested in cookie but they seemed to coincide well enough , then i got offered a rosella whom cookie seemed to fall for:eek: so rainbow joined the duo and they all seemed happy with cookie strutting his stuff, wolf whistling at all hours etc, thats why it was such a shock to find him dying:( vet said it was flu and you dont usually find out till its too late . when we came back rainbow was showing signs so vet gave her some antibiotics which fingers crossed seem to have worked ....
tragically though rainbow started wolf whistling when cookie died, it started off really quiet and now has advanced to full cookie like shrieks:eek: , i think she must be missing him:(
sunny however is same as everand doesnt seem to have noticed either arent in the cage, shes a bit like the rainman of the birdworld:o:rotfl:

have you considered getting a male bird for your girl? they can be enertaining in twos (unless you get a sunny who is only happy if living in my jumper:o)
jo xx