My Single Girl Laid an Egg!

[Sherrie]

Help! I've had Toots less than a year. She is 9 months old. I noticed that she was a little "grouchy" the past couple of days and seemed to be puffed up sometimes. Today I noticed that she had laid an egg beside her food dish. When she noticed that I saw it, she promptly started nesting on it. What do I do? I don't want to traumatize her by removing it, even though I know it is not fertilized. Should I let her keep it until she no longer feels the need to incubate it, or is it better for her if I remove it as soon as possible?
Thanks!
Sherrie

 

[LunaLovebird]

Better to let her keep it and get rid of it when she's done with it. Just make sure she's eating alright and getting plenty of calcium.

 

[Sherrie]

Thank you! She has a calcium block as well as a vitamin block and cuttlebone. I also feed her some well cooked egg for dinner tonight. She made her usual "mess" with it

She is a notoriously messy eater, even for a parrotlet.

 

[Milo]

What is her normal diet like? It sounds like she may need some adjustments to her husbandry to help discourage more reproductive behavior. It can get really dangerous for these little guys

 

[Sherrie]

She gets Volkman Parrotlet as a "staple", but I supplement it daily with whole grain and multi-grain bread and pasta, white and brown rice, oatmeal, veggies like peas(her favorite) broccoli, carrots, zucchini, cucumber, beans (edamame and garbanzos are her favorites) romaine lettuce and field greens, bits of boiled egg (whites only), fruits like banana and apple. She doesn't care for citrus of any kind.

 

[Milo]

How much of everything is she offered? That sounds like a lot of food and unfortunately not a lot of foods that contain calcium. I would cut out the egg altogether

 

[JLcribber]

Yea the diet is fairly "rich" which is always a contributing factor to egg laying. It does not hurt to lean the diet out a bit.

A happy healthy hen lays eggs. It's very much a double edged sword. Keeping them a little off balance and not so comfortable is NOT a bad thing.