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Cockatiels keep rolling eggs to poor locations...

Sunstorm

Meeting neighbors
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1/28/14
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41
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Springfield, OH
Hello there!
For a bit of background, our whiteface and pied cockatiel pair breed regularly but generally don't produce live eggs. We don't encourage the behavior, and don't provide them a box to do this in. Generally they lose interest in the dead eggs and we throw them out.

Well, this time they succeeded, and we wound up with three healthy, well-formed eggs, all fertile. Unfortunately they did it right on the floor of their enclosure. We decided to go ahead and let them hatch their clutch (with the intention of keeping the offspring), set up a comfy makeshift nestbox to hold their eggs... but they chose to wreck the nest, roll the eggs out onto the bars of the cage instead, and incubate them there. We moved a small carrying cage into the bottom of the enclosure and set it up as a nestbox, moved the eggs back in, put a barrier in the way to encourage them to incubate in the safety of the makeshift nest, but they'd have none of it. This time they shredded the bedding until the bars were showing in the carrying cage, move eggs onto the bars and protect them, nesting in rotation. We eventually stopped trying to fix it, as it was stressing out the parents. Aside from stubbornly nesting on the bars, the pair are very good parents to their brood, but we thought that with all this back and forth business, the eggs wouldn't make it anyway... and much to our surprise, here they are, hatching. The problem is that they are still on the bars, and I am very, very worried that the babies are going to fall through, get stuck or get injured. The other problem is that mother and father are extremely protective of their hatching babies, and there's no stress-free way to reach in and move them now.

I feel horribly guilty that the babies-to-be are in a possibly precarious situation, and would love some advice on what to do to help ensure they don't get hurt. For the record, we intend to freeze any other eggs they lay in the future, as we do not want them to continue laying.
 

zoo mom

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Try putting paper over the grate. Maybe they will leave it at least for a while. If that won't work can you remove the grate completely so they are nesting on the tray.
 

Anne & Gang

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PUt a big heavy paper over the grate (or remove the grate all together if you can)...
 

Sunstorm

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Thank you for the help! It's a bit too late for me to remove the grate, unfortunately, but I managed to get some heavy cardstock in there under the group earlier this morning. From the looks of it, we should have our first hatchling very shortly ;) I'll be keeping a close eye on their progress.
 

Birdbabe

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I was gonna suggest a towel or similar, that way the babies don't have a slick surface and may help keep them warmer.
 

petiteoiseau

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Yes, use something softer than just cardboard and try to make a 'tent' or something like that over the place where they have the eggs. You need to eliminate the possibility that the babies are born over a grid or you might end up with babies with broken legs.
 

fidsmom

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Place newspaper on the grid, also you can use eco bedding ( it is shredded paper) on top of the newspaper, will keep the eggs from not slipping.
 

tarad

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I had a situation something like this last December. My cockatiel laid eggs in one of her little feed bowls. Then she laid another and another. I can't believe as small as the bowl was, all four eggs landed in the bowl and not on the newspaper at the bottom of the cage. Well half the time no one sat on the eggs, the parents played quite a bit. I moved the eggs to one of those screw on water bowls that are about four inches across. The mother, Aiden, would sit on the eggs but honestly, the eggs were cold quite a bit because mom and dad were busy playing. I keep my house at 68 degrees. They are pretty much cage free except for at night. To my total shock, the eggs all hatched the week before Christmas. I was sitting at the kitchen table drinking my morning coffee and I heard this little squeaky sound. I'm looking around thinking what the heck is that sound. Then it dawned on me, the eggs. I go over to the cage and there is a little baby on the bottom of the plastic bowl and mom and dad are just sitting there staring at it. I totally freak out, call my husband at work in a total panic, feel like crying . . . it was so unreal because they never seemed to sit on the eggs and I handled the eggs all the time and thought they weren't fertile. Yes, I was having some stupid moments. lol. So I knew the baby could not be on hard plastic because I did not want it to have splayed eggs or be cold. I moved the eggs to a basket I got at the Dollar Store. I put the basket filled with Carefresh bedding inside a big box inside of the cage. I hung it in the area where the plastic bowl had been. I knew the basket was going to be temporary and I wanted them to get used to the cardboard box so that's why I put the basket in the box. There was no way they could roll the eggs out. I handled the eggs and the babies constantly. The parents did not get stressed. I would bring the basket out, put it on the kitchen table and mom and dad would feed the babies right there. They would feed the babies while I held the babies even. I changed the bedding every day in the nest also. After a couple of weeks, the babies were too big for the basket. I was worried they were going to fall out, so I removed the basket and put the babies in the box with the bedding. The parents were fine with that. Eventually the large box was moved to the bottom of the cage because the babies were climbing around quite a bit. I cut a hole/doorway so they could get out of the box once they starting walking around and put tons of toys on the bottom of the cage. All four babies are almost four months old and are very healthy and sweet. I named them Raven, Skye, Reese and Storm and I am keeping all of them. This was my first and last clutch of baby cockatiels. I do take my birds to a certified avian vet and was ready to go there if there was an issue, such as the parents not feeding the babies, etc. I even bought a thermometer, formula and syringes in case I had to hand feed. The parents, Dimitrie and Aiden, have made a nest on the top shelf of one of the kitchen cabinets now and she has five eggs, all of which are from DummyEggs.com. I made the purchase of fake eggs as soon as Aiden laid another egg in January. She can't tell the difference between the real and the fake. Every time she lays an egg, it gets replaced with a fake one. Both parents have been laying on the eggs since January. I check the nest everyday to make sure there are no real ones up there. So the point I'm trying to make with this long, rambling post is, you have to move the babies off the grate. The parents will be fine. The babies cannot be on a hard surface or they will get splayed legs. You have to do what's best for the babies so they are healthy. Put a box with bedding in it on the bottom of the cage and put the eggs/babies in it. I think the parents will adjust. You may have to keep putting in a new box if they keep chewing it up. Good Luck!!
 

Sunstorm

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This is a very late 'thank you' - I appreciate all the advice! We now have a healthy two week old baby pied cockatiel who is absolutely flourishing. Of the three eggs, one never hatched, one hatchling passed suddenly after about a week and a half (for reasons we are still unsure of), and one is the one we have now. The parents have done well raising the surviving one, so hopefully this will satiate their baby crazy for awhile...
 

petiteoiseau

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Please make sure they have two different types of soft food put out fresh twice a day for the parents to feed the baby because the fathers will peck the baby if they think there isn't enough food to go around.
 
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