Hi,

I have a 2 year old hen tiel. She has been laying eggs for the past year, and I mean laying! She will have a clutch of eggs almost every month! I know they only meant to lay once or twice a year so I am worried what this will do to her health. The general advice I have been given is to allow her to raise at least one chick as this will prevent her from laying more eggs. So with that in mind is there anyone out there in or around the Basildon area with breeding cockatiels who could spare a fertilized egg so that my hen could sit on it and raise the chick? I dont really want to purchase a male bird as my hen was a hand reared chick and has never really had contact with other birds.. whenever she has seen another bird she gets a bit stressed as if she doesnt know what it is, so Im not sure if getting her a partner would work out?? Also I would prefer to keep her as a single bird as I wouldnt want to risk her losing her tameness.

If there anyone out there that can help I would be really grateful!

Thanks

Sarah

I do not think that raising a chick will stop the incessant egg laying I 'm afraid.
This happens with many birds and there are things you can do to help them.
When she lays does she sit ont hem or just leave them?
If you take the eggs away whilst she is still sitting on them this will only make her lay more eggs.
If you do leave them with her until she naturally leaves them and she is stiil laying then you could try putting her to bed earlier and fooling her into thinking winter.If she has 12 hours light a day this is when she will layYou could cover her up at night earlier than normal or start doing so if you don't already for at least 11 to 12 hours a night.
If still this doesn't work you can get an avian vet to check her over as I believe they can have hormonal shots to stop the laying.

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Thanks for getting back to me. We have been living the eggs in the cage until she gets bored of them then taking them out, however a few weeks later she will start laying again. We have tried reducing her daylight hours although this is difficult as we live in a flat and dont really have any dark quiet rooms where we can put her, so even when we cover her up she doesnt really 'go to bed' as she can still hear us in the other rooms.

I would like her to experience raising a chick/chicks, then if the egg laying doesnt stop after that we will have to look into other options. Its worth a shot I think! I just dont know how to get hold of a 'foster egg'. I have heard about them but dont seem to be able to get hold of them. I am relunctant to buy a male bird in case they dont get on.. i dont want to stress her out.

Thanks

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I agree with Todd on this one there is no fool proof way to get her to stop laying...it's her natural instinct and as long as you make sure she has access to grit, iodine blocks and cuttlefish she will be fine.

I have kept and bred cockatiels for many years and used hr birds and you do not loose their tameness so i wouldnt worry about that at all. Actually makes it easier keeping an eye on the chicks and their development. Why not try and get a hand tame or hr aduly male?

She would be a little confused by him at first but would get used to him once he starts singing and prancing about showing off lol (shame you weren't in Glasgow as I have a male cockatiel who constantly sings and humps his toys lol I could have lended his services haha)

Kelly

Hi Kelly,

Ive actually got a friend who has a male bird. I was thinking of taking our hen to him and allowing them to spend some time together and 'mate' before bringing her home again. Does it even work like that with cockatiels? Or does the male have to be continuously with her so that they can raise the babies together? If i do go ahead with this when is the best time to do it? She currently has a clutch of eggs that she has been sitting on for about 2 weeks. Shall i wait until she stops sitting on them before introducing her to the male?

I would be grateful for any advice you can give.

Thanks!

I think it is not really very fair to just take her to a mate and then split them up.
Cockatiels mate for life unless one patner dies and I think we should respect this.
Is there any reason you do not want to get a mate for her?

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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!

Hi

We have that kind of relationship with our bird. She watches TV with us, showers with me, has regular head scratches... she is also very attached to my partner and sometimes will try to mate with his hand when he touches her (quite funny to watch). As a result he is trying to have as little to do with her as poss when she is 'in the mood' so as not to encourage it. We have tried moving her cage round and putting her to bed earlier but the egg laying and mating behaviour hasnt stopped. I wouldnt mind getting her a partner to be honest but my other half is worried she will lose a lot of her tameness. Also i wouldnt want them to be continually breeding. Would they do this?

Thanks