My Tiel wiill not stop laying eggs. How can I stop her.

[jvolbracht]

I found a tiel in my yard about a year ago. I could not find any owners in the neigbourhood so we bought a cage and kept her. I did not know her sex untill she started finding baskets in the house and laying eggs in there. After abut 3 weeks she quit breeding and went back to normal. But after a while she found a place behind the books on my bookshelf and started laying eggs again. She sit on them for about three weeks, than quits for a few days. I remove the eggs and hope she will not start again. But a few days later she starts all over again. Since she has her nest outside she is not in her cage for the most time. I am afraid to lock her in the cage since I think she might get eggbound if she is has no access to her nest. This is now going on for about 7 times. My wife keeps all her eggs in the Fridge and has a whole basket full. How can I stop her vom wanting to breed and laying eggs?

[Monica]

You need to remove all her access to these dark nesting areas so that she doesn't get the idea to breed. You may need to put things closer to the wall, cover them up with a cloth of some sort, or cover them with wood so that she cant get to her nesting places. It's fine if she lives out of her cage as long as the house is bird-proof, but you need to restrict all access to her nesting sites. She should not be laying more than 3 clutches a year as well, 2 clutches of eggs is more on the safer side however...

[Alika]

Steal her eggs and replace them with dummy eggs. Let her sit on them until she figures out that they're not going to hatch and abandons them on her own. Many birds will continue to lay if you just keep pulling eggs, and can lay themselves to death.

You can also try controlling the day/night light cycle and the day/night temperatures - changes in these things often stimulate breeding in the wild. Unfortunately, they also help stimulate molting so you could potentially run into some trouble there.

If all else fails, talk to your vet about hormone therapy. Our U2 at work gets into breeding mode and refuses to work, laying eggs and nesting under her papers. To get her out of it, our vet sometimes puts her on a drug. I believe it's some type of hormone, but beyond that I'm not sure exactly what it is. It does the trick for her, though, so it might be worth looking into.

[Monica]

Hormone shots... the most that I have heard about them is that they are not very effective. They may be for some birds, but most (that I've heard) it doesn't help... Firstly though, controlling the amount of light will help, though stopping her access to all possible nest sights will help the most...

[The Outlaw]

Alika:

Nice to see you posting again!

[The Outlaw]

Here's a link for a supplier of artificial tiel eggs. I suggest you seriously consider acquiring them. Tiels are notorious for chronic egg laying and it can become life threatening. Producing so many eggs can deplete calcuim and ultimately cause soft egg production. That can lead to egg binding and worse.

http://www.redbirdproducts.com/cagesaccessories.htm

[jvolbracht]

Thank you all very much for your advise, I had a feeling that this constant laying eggs can't be good. Sometimes my baby came out from the nest realy weak and limb. I do not think I need the artifical eggs because since Coco has no mail partner they are not fertil anyhow.
I think I follow Monika's advise. Coco shoud be quitting again with her breeding cycle in about another two week. As soon as she starts not going back to her nest I will move her cage to another room, and try to get her more sleep by making her sleep in her cage and covering up the cage earlier. And I am glad Monika you said it doesn't heard for her to be ouside the cage because coco is used to fly around the house and play, and eat with her friend my two dogs, who came to love her and let her do every thing with them. It would break my heart to have to lock her up.

[Monica]

She is a gorgeous tiel!



As long as your house is bird safe, it shouldn't be a problem to let her roam free, though her eating with the dogs may not be such a good idea (with dog saliva being dangerous to birds, and dog food may not be an ideal food item for a bird). I myself have two cage-free birds, a cockatiel and a conure, however they only have free roam of a large bedroom, not the entire house, since it wouldn't be safe.

When she's going through her breeding cycle, try to make sure that she gets extra calcium and nutrients by feeding her cooked eggs, carrots, and cooked sweet potatoes. She'll need them to keep her health up.

[The Outlaw]

You can stop her from laying by simply placing the artificial eggs in her nest. Remove her eggs. She will then sit on them and not produce more eggs. She doesn't need a male to produce eggs, only fertile eggs.

[Alika]

Outlaw: yeah, been busy... sorry :)

The problem with simply removing the nest box/materials is that determined layers will often just lay right on the floor of the cage. I know doves do it, as will some finches (like zebras) and I'm quite sure I've heard of cockatiels doing it, too.

The dummy eggs are a good investment. The tiel will be happy because she thinks she has her eggs, and you will be happy because she will quit laying them. You will likely have this problem every year from now on, so the first time she lays next year... bam! You already have those dummy eggs ready to go. If it was me, that's what I'd do.

But you know what they say about opinions and advice... every one has some to give, and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks :) That's one of the things about animal care and training, too. Everyone has a different way of doing things, and everyone thinks their way is the best.

jvrolbracht: do what you think will work best for your bird.