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Old 20-06-2009, 08:30 AM
Kristi27 Kristi27 is offline
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Re: Cockatiel Egg needed!

Hi Sarah,

Just thought I would add my pennies worth of thoughts! A few years ago I had a female HR C'tiel. She was adorable and spent all the time with me when I was in the house- even coming away with me for weekends!! She loved affection, letting me preen her and even bathing and showering with me. Anyway, by spending all this time with her, she started to see me as a mate and, like your bird, started to lay eggs continuously.
After a few months with no sign of stopping, I contacted an avian vet who wanted to see her. He said she was fine but was more concerned with my 'animal husbandry' as he put, i.e. I was setting the scene, sort to speak, in order for her to have exactly the right conditions for her body to think about laying eggs. He suggested moving her cage to a different part of the room (even changing some perches about to disrupt her nesting), covering her up for bed earlier, not showing as much affection (ie preening), stop giving her soft foods (mash potato, peas etc), and not spraying her with water (apparantly, moisture is need for egg production or something???). Looks like I was doing it all wrong. She did eventually stop which was a relief.
My personal advise is to try and do some of the above but also be aware that if she still lays more eggs, she will be depleting herself of calcium so it is very important that you provide it for her- a cuttle fish (although Sparky never touched hers so I used to grate it up in her food!) and I also offered bits of cheese which she loved (not entirely sure if it was that good for her but it definitely had calcium in). Lack of calcium can cause egg-binding which unfortunately can be fatal as firstly the egg shells may not be hard enough and secondly the hen finds it difficult to expel the egg which can result in it breaking inside her.

Sorry to ramble on for so long. Good Luck!
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