Best steps to take to help an egg along?

[BeakyBird]

My friend's parakeet laid one egg this morning, and has another on the way. She never put a breeding box in, and she doesn't know much about babies. I'm almost certain they're not fertile, but her female parakeet is still laying the second egg. I'm not there to assess the bird, but what are the best steps to help a laying female pass her egg? And how quickly does a female pass an egg?

I'm planning on dropping by as soon as I can, but what else can be done?

 

[karen256]

First of all it's normal for them to lay every other day, so there's no need to worry about her unless she seems to be in distress. Egg binding is serious, but it's too early to expect another egg anyway. The best thing you can do really is to help her feel safe and secure and to try not to disturb her nest and first egg if possible, so she continues to see it as a safe place to lay. Make sure she has calcium available also.
If you do suspect egg binding, she would need to see the vet immediately as it can be extremely serious. However, there's no real reason to expect any problem, especially if the first egg she laid looks normal.

 

[BeakyBird]

All is well, she passed the second egg and seems to be expecting another. We did call the vet nevertheless to get some advice since I'm not a breeder, nor is she. All eggs look normal.

 

[melissasparrots]

Make sure she is able to exercise. Don't force her to exercise, but as general husbandry for the next round of eggs after this one, it helps if females are able to fly and are physically fit. For now, I'd keep her quiet so their isn't any risk of breaking an egg inside her if she isn't used to flying around and can't control her flight. For the future, out of cage time several times a week or a very large cage that allows at least some fluttering flight. Other issues would be to make sure she has enough calcium and vitamin D. If she's on a mostly seed diet, now might be a good time to add a moderate amount of a vitamin supplement with D and a cuddle bone in her cage free choice.

Over time the biggest problem seems to be chronic egg laying in combination with small cage and/or poor diet. The first clutch might be fine, but if the environment isn't modified to discourage egg laying, then continuous laying can drain the resources of any bird. Especially one on an already poor diet. Maybe some budgie people can chime in about what they do long term to keep the bird from laying clutch after clutch. For myself, I don't have budgies but with other species, I add a nest box during the nesting season, then take it away during the off season. Just adding and subtracting a nest box tends to give them a signal that its time to start and stop laying, so they don't get into a cycle of constantly laying on the cage floor. I also keep my breeders in a room with mostly natural light. So when it starts getting dark earlier outside, that in conjunction with removal of the nest box, tends to shut down mating. I also do a complete cage cleaning about that time too and re-arrange all their perches. Just laying a clutch of eggs by itself should not be a problem for most hens. Laying multiple clutches close together or poor diet overall can lead to big problems.

Sometimes the birds need several environmental signals to stop mating. For example, I have a pair of parrotlets on eggs right now and just hatched a baby even though its late fall. The problem is that I never removed the nest box. Had I removed the nest, and changed their photoperiod and moved their cage furnishings around, that probably would have shut them down.