poor lucy and her egg

[formalaska]

I have a 6 year old girl. i made it this long without any trouble. for the past year i have been trying to not let her lay eggs or make a nest. so she started to pull her feathers out. so i let her make a nest (thats what one bird group told me to do) now lucy lay 2 eggs i pull one and she is sitting on one. what do i do? I pull the last egg and she srceams and start to pull feathers out. so i put it back. do i let her sit on it till she bored with it? she is eating well i feel so bad for her it makes me sad.
Please help robin

[Cindy215]

Ok first leave ALL her eggs or she'll lay more to replace them. Some people say leave them for three weeks making some corrolation to hatch time but that's not right. Leave them till she loses interest. I assume there's no male but if there were you would freeze one at a time and mark with an x and return at room temp.

You can order fakes from fakebirdeggs.com.

Then make the husbandry changes that will help her get out of her hormonal imbalance. Following a strict daylight schedule including dawn and dusk with no artificial lighting. A long night quiet sleep with no lights flashing like computers, not tv or other human noises.

Then moving her cage around the house to different bright spots. Rotating the inside toys and food and water etc. Remove all nest type things in the future. That was bad advise, sorry. No allowing nesty behavior like backing up to you, nuzzling in your shirt, behind pillows or in dark spots. Dont stroke her beak, feet, back or butt. Leave her cage open and encourage her OUT and enrichment not monopolizing on the eggs 24/7. That part may not happen easily lol.

Food...decrease protein and vitamin e. Give her things near where she's sitting so she eats enough and healthy, dark leafy greens like kale, escarole, dandelion, mustard, turnip, arugula, watercress, chards, no spinach or parsley they bind calcium. grains, fruits and veggies. Whole wheat bread even soaked a bit. Not egg or other protein.If she doesnt eat these currently try chopping or put through a chopper but alot of them like the stalks of the greens they munch down and extract the vitamins.

Speak with your avian vet about her calcium needs. The laying is draining it from her bones and if she's on pellets you cant just supplement artificial calcium it's dangerous. I dont feed pellets and dont know what the vets say about egg laying and calcium in a pellet eater.

If she is not a pellet eater they will probably tell you to give Calciboost or Calcivet in Europe/Canada. Only available online but the best in most people's opinions. 3 - 5 times for now per week but ask the vet.

There's another thread here called sexy behavior with more info. And a link with an in depth explaination. Also a couple of anecdotes I posted.

The number one thing is to shorten her days with dawn and dusk (VERY IMPORTANT) if you are in the Northern Hemisphere because it's not breeding season now. It's a hormonal imbalance from too much light, replicating the long days of summer because they have a sensor in the brain regulating her metabolism by light.

If you have to fake it with black out drapes and dimmers if you work, say, then use a dimmer on a small lamp on the floor. Not a florescent it's a danger use a incandescent bulb.

The ONLY light. Then over 15 min - 30 min slowly decrease the light like outside would be. On the floor not a table. She needs to be in her sleeping room and already have eaten her pm meal before that time. She will grind her beak ready for sleep. The reason on the floor is believe it or not, it's not just the amount of light but the angle...sun going down below her. I found this out from experts over the years but proven to me when I messed up a couple of times this month with the time change,,,,and was dimming my floor lamp out of being in a hurry and my birds were flying to the curtain rod for the first time ever to sleep. Then I realized my mistake, corrected it and they stopped the curtain rod thing immediately.

I use the dimmer from walmart you screw in the socket and turn a little dial not the tapping kind...the plug in one in the wall only dims three levels ....or use a towel. Be careful lol.

Hopefully you'll see it stop within two weeks, frequently sooner. Dont forget to call your vet about calcium. Especially in some birds like Ekkies they have unusual diet needs.