New breeder. Help!

[Kirby103]

hello there! I'm new to the forum, but need some advice and suggestions. My two lovies (Kirby and Maui) are paired and I just found out this afternoon that Kirby is laying. Came home to find an egg at the bottom of the cage (broken..which I'll get to). I immediately went to my local bird store/breeder and purchased a suitable nest box which I placed in the cage and added a few nesting materials. However, Kirby just isn't interested. She seems determined to lay her eggs in her bed. And that's where the broken egg comes in. Her bed is one of those snuggle huts that hang in the cage and is open at both ends... hint hint. Her bed is at the top of the cage, and when she passesd the egg, it rolled out of the hut and fell to the bottom of the cage and broke. She looks like she's going to pass another one at any moment, but she won't even look at the nest box, or use it. What should I do?

 

[AvianCrew]

Welcome! Patience. She'll eventually start laying in the nest box.

 

[LunaLovebird]

I'd get rid of the hut, personally. Those things are death traps.

 

[Kirby103]

Update:
Kirby has dropped her second egg... into her food dish. It broke, like the first. I'm considering taking the hut out of the cage, but I worry that if I do, it'll cause problems since she has chosen it as her breeding ground. The nest box still remains untouched. Anyone think if I remove the hut that she'll have no other option but the nest? Would I be causing a problem by removing it?

 

[sunnysmom]

@karen256 ?

 

[JLcribber]

but I worry that if I do, it'll cause problems since she has chosen it as her breeding ground.

What kind of problems are you talking about? I've never heard of a problem with not laying eggs. Just the opposite.

There is no such thing as breeding ground. If you take away the nesting opportunities the bird will stop laying.

Why do you want to breed them anyway with no experience or skill in doing so?

 

[Anfsurfer]

I agree with John, get rid of the hut and the nestbox. Not sure why you're encouraging her to breed when you not prepared for what's to come?

 

[Kirby103]

I wasn't encouraging them at all. They made that decision on their own. I only purchased the nest box after she laid her first egg. The hut has been there the entire time I've had them, which is 2 years now. I wasn't expecting she would turn it into a makeshift nest

 

[JosienBB]

The best thing you can do is to remove any future eggs and replace them with fake ones. Or boil the eggs and give them back to her.

 

[Anfsurfer]

Giving her a hut or nestbox is encouraging her to lay. You should remove both of them, and the eggs at this point. I know it can be impossible to stop them from laying sometimes but there are things you can do. Make some changes to the cage, get some new toys that she's never seen...things to distract her from wanting to nest. You really don't sound prepared to have babies.

 

[Hankmacaw]

The hut really and truly is a death trap for your birds. We have lost three birds recently, just on this forum from birds eating and becoming compacted from happy huts. If you care about your birds get rid of that hut.