Help! They won't stop mating!

[diannenaughton]

Millie is my momma bird and she was under Newbie, the daddy yet again this morning. My current babies are about a month old (hatched April 1) and the first one left the nest box yesterday. Mom and Dad didn't waste any time getting back to it. The clutch before this youngest one was hatched the week after the superbowl so like second week of Feb. There were 5 that hatched from the first clutch and only 3 made it. There were 3 that hatched from the second and all 3 made it. The babies are healthy and mom is looking good, but where am I going to find homes for all these birds. I'm afraid to separate them because I'm worried mom needs dad to help with the current babies. They have been doing all the feeding. I've been trying everything I read on the internet. I've been covering the cage early every day. I've been giving them less food. I can't believe they're going at it again! Since I saw them together, does that definitely mean I'm going to get more eggs?

Thanks

[Oscars Mom]

I think youll have to remove the nest box for them to stop.To place them register on an internet site .They might not be freeim not sure.Bird clubs list breeders so you could join a regional bird club too.to find the sites google parrot breeders there are lots of them.Im sure local people would be glad to find you so they dont have to get a bird at petco. Do you have any pictures?

[KDK241]

Yes, if you remove the box it should discourage egg laying. Do they babies have most of their feathers? If they do, you can remove the box and put a couple of perches closer to the bottom of the cage, make a little "nest" in the corner and let the babies stay down there. Remove the grate if you have one. Keep covering them early and limiting food as much as you can. Also, if you have to remove the father, the mother can feed the babies on her own. It sounds like she has already laid 2 clutches and another one would not be good.

[Monica]

Two clutches a year is recommended, no more then 3.... 3 can be pushing it.

Usually speaking, if you remove one parent the other parent will take over raising the chicks... although you do have the issue that the parents may call out to eachother and pay more attention to one another... in which case, best to put them in side by side cages.

[tielfan]

If you remove the mother, the father can also take care of the chicks on his own. When the first chicks left the nest my mother bird started plucking the younger ones, apparently trying to drive them out so she could nest again. So I banned her from the breeding cage and daddy has been feeding them ever since, with some minor handfeeding by me for socialization purposes (co-parenting). The chicks have all fledged now and I took the nestbox out this morning. But the adults have started mating again during the rare moments that I let them be together, so I may end up having to put it back in!