Breeding birds handed in

[angelicvampyre]

Well I have a few rescue birds.

The first pair is a Budgie pair, I knew the the hen was thinking of laying so I removed anything that looked like a nest and put her and her boy up for adoption. I nice lady came and wanted to the take the boy so she packed him up and took him home. The next day I went out the the little hen had laid an egg. The lady who took her mate ran me that day to check on a few diet things for her new boy and I mentioned that his ex girlfriend had laid an egg and she freaked out and after hanging up on me (litterally she hung up) 20 min later she was at my door with the cock as she just could not split them up.

So we moved the hen and the egg into a box and she laid 4 more. Two hatched over the past 24 hours and the babies are SOOOOOO small (after dealing with Show Budgie babies). The lady has asked that after they are done she would be intrested in taking the babies. So we will work it out.

I then have some Tiels. One pair and one single cock. The young/single cock has a home, just waiting for the avairy to be built so holding him for a guy. The breeding pair I have had 3 different people say they will take them and then turn them down... They are in a large cage in the breeding room, well she keeps trying to create nests and I keep trying to discourage her but she is a persistant bugger.

I have a spare avairy, just need to clean it out and set it up that they could just let them go but then I get stuck with having to not only re home them but also their babies.

Anyone have any ideas on how to discourage breeding outside of splitting them up? Did that and the hen went sick I thought she was going to kill herself. I think moving them out of the breeding room would be good as it is nice and warm in there and the lights are on so makes them think the day is longer. But if I move her to the avairy and she keeps going down to lay I might miss the signs.

Any advice would be great. Either that or if anyone in Melbourne are intrested in giving these guys forever home and we can try and work something out.

[robert]

Angelicvampyre,hope you get some help?
from Robert and Precious

[vankarhi]

Well if it were me I would not have nestboxes any where near them and if they do still lay eggs (as my female canary always did) you could always take the eggs out and put artificial eggs in. that way no extra birdies for you and no stress for the birdies???

[angelicvampyre]

the first egg she laid I took off her and replaced with a fake one and she ignored it and laid another in another corner of the cage.... Going to shift her outside away from all the breeding and hope that stops her. If she ground nests in the avairy then I have no clue what I am going to do... wish me luck!

[vankarhi]

just keep taking the eggs out. Shrekie laid her first eggs in her house cage with no mate and no nest box. I had no issues with her as 2 of the eggs broke and I just removed all the eggs anyway.

[parrotmad]

You could also just addle the eggs and leave them in there for her. She might get bored sitting that way and atleast she wouldn't be constantly laying.

[Laraine]

Unfortunately Cockatiels can be prolific egg layers, even laying them on the floor if no nest available. I don't know the answer other than taking boxes out. There have been posts in the past from people wanting to know how to stop them, maybe look back and see if they had any answers. I have been told to leave the eggs in, but then they will hatch.

[robert]

Hope this helps
www.birdhealth.com.au/bird/cockatiel/cockatiel.html
www.holisticbirds.com/pages/chronicegg0503.htm
www.pacificpets.biz/assets/documents/eel.pdf
www.avianweb.com/egglaying.html
the next two are the same,but they take you to different links if interested
www.cockatielfoundation.com/breeding-egglaying-problems-pt3.html
www.cockatielsplusparrots.com/breeding-egglaying-pt3.html
www.cockatielcottage.net/egg_laying.html
www.cockatieltweets.com/articles.html
from Robert and Precious

[avinet]

Jul 28, 2009 7:08:39 GMT 10 vankarhi said:

just keep taking the eggs out. Shrekie laid her first eggs in her house cage with no mate and no nest box. I had no issues with her as 2 of the eggs broke and I just removed all the eggs anyway.

Removing the eggs as they are laid will often encourage them to keep laying to try to form a clutch of the normal number for that species - particularly with cockatiels and budgies. And that can result in major problems with calcium shortage and other issues.

If there is a chance the eggs could be fertile since a mate is present, and no babies are wanted, just take the egg as it is laid and give it a good shake to scramble the yolk, and replace it. The hen will lay her clutch, sit on them, thus breaking the breeding cycle, and eventually give up when the eggs don't hatch. To keep track of which eggs have been scrambled, put a mark on them with a marker pen as you shake them.

cheers,

Mike

[angelicvampyre]

Thank for all the help guys. I found a guy who is intrested in taking the pair as he would like to breed and has an avairy just needs to get a breeding box for them. So hopefully he can get them this weekend and she can get her thing on

[vankarhi]

Well that solves that problem.

Thanks for the information too Mike. I might use it one day if I need to, but lucky for me I only had to do this to my female canary......and swapping the eggs for artifical ones worked for her.