Female Cockatiel & egg laying..

[Tuffoldhen]

Anyone have female cockatiels?...This is my first year with my female cockatiel named Cricket and she laid an egg yesterday in the bottom of her cage......I took the egg out but made her a nest of shedded paper incase she would lay another one..Well...I got a broody cockatiel that won't let me near her in the cage!...I know she must be laying another egg..My question is how many do cockatiels lay?....I have no males so I know its not fertile just want to know how many I should expect...Thanks....I've had her a year...

 

[Katy]

I used to have a female, now I only have my male. They were never a pair. The female would lay a clutch of 3 or 4 and then start setting on them. If I let her set on them for a couple of days before I took them away it would be awhile before she laid anymore....if I took them out right away she would continue laying. I wish there was some way to keep them from laying at all. I think it was very hard on her and I feel like it shortened her life by quite a few years.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Cockatiels are not like chickens. Katy is right to be concerned about
it being hard on them. Their diet, in most cases, does not support
egg laying.

I find it odd the bird started laying this time of year. Usually something
triggers it. Has anything changed?

If she lays an egg leave it on the bottom of the cage until she abandons
it. Don't make a nest or encourage setting. Immediately removing the
egg may cause her to lay another.

Move her cage to another location and change the setup in the cage.
If possible, get her a new cage completely.

The goal is to stop her from laying.

Our Conure started laying after 13 years. Heck we thought she was
a he until we found the egg. Somehow, using the some of the things
I mentioned, we got her to stop laying.

Oh, last thing, give her some egg shell to replace the calcium she's
using to make her eggs.

Keep us posted.

 

[Katy]

Changing her surroundings was somthing that the person at a local bird store suggested to get her to quit laying. It would work for awhile, and then she'd start in again. Mine layed eggs at all times of the year. I wonder if you can spay a bird? There aren't any avian vets around here or I would have looked into that.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Wow..Thanks for the answers...Going to change everything around and move her cage...I'll keep you posted....Would alittle oyster shell that the hens get be okay for her or do I need a different kind?...or just use the plain old egg shells from chickens?

Nothing has changed around here to make her lay unless she has heard every word about the chickens not laying...

 

[Katy]

Purple chicken.....That's odd that you thought yours was a male all those years...I thought mine was a male too for the first probably 4 or 5 years of her life. I bought her as a male and she was marked like a male. Wasn't until I found that first egg that I knew different.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Big surprise wasn't it???

Conures and Cockatiels are hard to sex. I always wondered why Vinny
didn't have a comb.

We bought Vinny from a breeder when she was a little purple thing.
Her sex was never even mentioned or really cared about. I named
her Vinny cause I needed a good Guido attitude name since it
reflected her personality. YO VINNEEEE!!!! (I'm Italian so I can
say that)

 

[Katy]

Yes it was certainly a surprise....and not a good one!! It made more sense then why she never would learn to say anything like my other did. They say female cockatiels are less likely to learn to talk.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
I wonder is the same is true with conures.

Vinny imitates sounds but doesn't have a vocabulary other than
"hellllo"

Then again 14 years of me yelling" Stop squawking you stupid bird" might
have had an affect. Naa

 

[beckt]

When I had my cockatiels they did not lay their first few years either. What I did was just leave the eggs in the bottom of the cage. Mine would lay an egg every other day till she had about 4 or five. She never went broody on me either. Whe I cleaned the cage I would put back in the eggs. This helped some but she did get egg bound & I lost her to that, at much to young an age. I sure hope my conure don't decide to start laying. He is about 9 years old and we are not sure that (he) is correct.