I have 3 cockatiels which are female. I origionally had 4, however the male died over 2 years ago. He was one of the females mates and the father of the other 2 females.

They all have male names, even thought they are female
Buster -who is the mother and i have had her for atleast 10 years.
The other 2 are about 9/8 years old.
They all live in the same cage.

I have noticed several eggs in the passed few months, i'm still not sure who is doing the laying.

All the eggs end up broken and in the end i have to take it out. One egg has been layed recently and all three seem to be playing with it and basically roling it about!

They also display mating behaviour!

I have been told if i move them to a different place in the house it should stop them from laying, is this true?

Any other advice about them laying eggs?

i am planning on getting some fake eggs, to hopefully get her out of the hormonal moad.

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First of all leave any eggs with them as long as possible. if you remove them that will only encourage them to lay more. If they sit on them and try to hatch them the longer they sit the higher the hormone level that stops them laying gets.
Feed a calcium supplement and dark green vegetables. Laying eggs will deplete calcium reserves causing misshaped eggs and muscle weakness that will in turn lead to egg binding and possible leg and foot paralasis and death.
If you are going to move them to a different room once they settle and feel secure again they will start to lay again so move them from room to room every couple of weeks.

If they are constantly laying throughout the year.

Seperate them and put them in different rooms
Cover cages so they only get 8 hrs daylight a day
Remove mirrors and any toys they get too "attached" to
If they are tame never stroke them on their backs or hand feed them and if they have a favourite person keep them away.

If all that fails all that is left is
Hormone therapy which is expensive and will have to be repeated or
Put them in an aviary and pair them up with males. That will slow egg production down as they will then go through the whole hatching and rearing process.

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My 'male' did that,a few years ago!
She laid 2,and that was all.

Thanks!

The current egg is at the bottom of the cage and it is intact, none of them sit on the egg. However they go donw to the bottom of the cage occationally and move it about and then get bored and go back to their perch!


I think ill get some fake eggs to replace any future eggs that end up getting broken.

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You could always hard boil them to limit the mess if they do break

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And eat them for supper

Really!

I never really thought about doing that!

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