Pickles has.......

[Beanurita]

......done it again!! She played her first egg on 23Dec14 and played 3 eggs without issues.....well, it looks like she is on her 2nd batch of egg as she played one today!! She is in good spirits and still eating while still settling me touch her a bit (with reservation of course) but her is the thing......she turned 1 year old on 7April15 so she had her first eggs at 8m old and her second set is at 1yr old.......it's looking like I have a serial egg layer on my hands!!! Thankfully she passes the eggs without problems especially since she has splayed legs but after the first round I've removed else all egg layingbsimulations and I keep the schedule so they have the same dark hrs .....what am I missing here? Any advice to help prevent any more eggs in the future would be awesome!!!

 

[Cynthia & Percy]

bump

 

[sunnysmom]

Have you tried increasing her hours of darkness?

 

[pinkdagger]

More hours of darkness, more frequent changes in her cage and play areas. I would suggest once a week. If you have a good idea of how much she eats each day, feed her that much without overfeeding. Keep her busy by putting food in foraging spots instead of just in the food bowl. If she has any tents or beds or nesty areas, take them away. If there are fuzzy things like perch buddies, take those away too. Avoid any touching below the neck unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Happibird]

Following this thread as my mom has a serial egg laying conure... Several times a year and not sure what to do. She does not have any problems other than, she will lay about 6 before she quits for a month, two or three and then at it again. This does not seem normal to me as I have a female grey that is 10 and has never layed one egg, but I guess this could be the difference in species. Hmmmm inquiring minds wondering here.

 

[Applebutter]

Yes that can be a problem, my female used to lay a lot eggs until I had to eliminate specific toys and triggers she'd make into her new husband.

Beep can't have toys with bells because they excite her too much, shred able toys put her in nesting mode as well. Never had much luck with keeping her in the dark for longer periods of time but taking away certain toys has helped me a lot.

What is she eating? Fatty seed diets can also be a trigger.

 

[Beanurita]

She gets about 12hrs dark now.....no nesty type stuff....no snuggle stuff......only touch her head.....limit her food and only have pellets in at all times.....switched out toys......change all their cage locations weekly just because.....not to sure really want to do....she played egg #2 this morning right ion track!!!

 

[sunnysmom]

I would try increasing her hours of darkness by a couple hours. I know with cockatiels, they suggest 10-12 hours of sleep/dark but to reduce hormones they suggest bumping it up to 12-14.

 

[Beanurita]

thank you all!! I will continue making some changes and see what happens.......

 

[Justlinda]

So, she is laying eggs without a male to spark her interest? Good to know that can happen.

 

[Beanurita]

So, she is laying eggs without a male to spark her interest? Good to know that can happen.

Yep!! Not even another lovie in sight!!! She was 8m old when she layed her first few eggs and just turned 1 year on 7 April and started her 2nd set of eggs......egg # 3 is due tomorrow AM

 

[fluffypoptarts]

So, she is laying eggs without a male to spark her interest? Good to know that can happen.

Happy (@Happynme's lovie) has, too.

 

[Happynme]

Lovies feel the need to reproduce with or without a male . You can try to avoid it (lighting no nesty materials or toys move things around alot and so on) or you can embrace it. Provide a box with dummy eggs and let her sit them and loose interest.
Happy was slightly unique as she protected her chosen nest (anything she could get into squeeze into or hide behind)...but once her first egg passed...she dropped or pushed it onto the bottom of her cage where it cracked and she showed ZERO interest in mothering it nor the 2 that followed. I quickly ordered dummy eggs ...shoved all 6 in and she never layed another egg...sat on the dummys or showed any nesty behavior. I guess her motherhood light was turned on and off.just that quickly.
Females that lay eggs ...lay eggs. You can attempt to ward it off. Or you can see the first signs of nestiness and put those dummys in and see what she does. Happy hasnt gotten nesty again....but that dosent mean she wont. If she shows any signs...dummy eggs will be given to her and we shall see what she does.
@ Laurulfeathercat takes the natural embrace it approach. With her guidance i adopted somewhat of her let happy do what happy is called by nature to do approach. I found it beneficial for happy to do what she was to do..I simply provided unbreakable eggs to complete a fake clucth and go on with life. She is a very happy lovie so it worked for us.

 

[Happynme]

She will need extra calcium sources....to help replenish her body from laying. I found collard greens and egg shells (ground into dust then mixed in with the cooked egg) to be redially accepted by happy...as well as i shaved some of her cuttlebone into her pellets so she would get it that way as well. I know there are other perhaps better sources...but those where cheap easy and i knee happy would eat egg. Lol!

 

[Laurie]

Excess food can be a trigger as you noted but if she insists on laying I would offer her a breeder pellet to make sure that she has the needed nutrients to be healthy and lay healthy eggs. If she is healthy you should have no problem but egg laying has a nutritional tool on the hen so you will need to supplement her diet. If she gets depleted of nutrients you can run into trouble. When I had parrotlets most of them would lay three times a year and I keep them on a breeder diet the whole time. If she lays every four months then I would recommend the supplemented diet. Most pellet makes have a higher nutrient diet available they are usually labeled "high potency", "breeder" or some other such name.

 

[Beanurita]

Excess food can be a trigger as you noted but if she insists on laying I would offer her a breeder pellet to make sure that she has the needed nutrients to be healthy and lay healthy eggs. If she is healthy you should have no problem but egg laying has a nutritional tool on the hen so you will need to supplement her diet. If she gets depleted of nutrients you can run into trouble. When I had parrotlets most of them would lay three times a year and I keep them on a breeder diet the whole time. If she lays every four months then I would recommend the supplemented diet. Most pellet makes have a higher nutrient diet available they are usually labeled "high potency", "breeder" or some other such name.

I have been adding supplements to her food.....I've also noticed that she is eating more pellets lately....PICKLES is a healthy eater with fresh chop daily and pellets which are always avaliable......sprouts when available which is 3-4 days a week at a min......then she gets some seeds in the evening......I also provide raw veggies of all sorts throughout the day and eggs 1-2x a week. The first time she only layed 3 eggs but broke the first one. This time she layed 2 and no more for the past 3 days and no egg bum so I think she taps out at 2 eggs to sit on. She is still sitting but does come out for some loving

I'm good with letting nature take its course since she is such a healthy eater and overall a happy and loving lovie who still loves to snuggle me when she is done nesting. If she continues this egg laying pattern I may just get some breeder pellets for good measure!

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Lovies feel the need to reproduce with or without a male . You can try to avoid it (lighting no nesty materials or toys move things around alot and so on) or you can embrace it. Provide a box with dummy eggs and let her sit them and loose interest.
Happy was slightly unique as she protected her chosen nest (anything she could get into squeeze into or hide behind)...but once her first egg passed...she dropped or pushed it onto the bottom of her cage where it cracked and she showed ZERO interest in mothering it nor the 2 that followed. I quickly ordered dummy eggs ...shoved all 6 in and she never layed another egg...sat on the dummys or showed any nesty behavior. I guess her motherhood light was turned on and off.just that quickly.
Females that lay eggs ...lay eggs. You can attempt to ward it off. Or you can see the first signs of nestiness and put those dummys in and see what she does. Happy hasnt gotten nesty again....but that dosent mean she wont. If she shows any signs...dummy eggs will be given to her and we shall see what she does.
@ Laurulfeathercat takes the natural embrace it approach. With her guidance i adopted somewhat of her let happy do what happy is called by nature to do approach. I found it beneficial for happy to do what she was to do..I simply provided unbreakable eggs to complete a fake clucth and go on with life. She is a very happy lovie so it worked for us.

I used to try to avoid all nesting material but it seemed like Snerky was getting frustrated, so I moderated my approach a little. I let her have things to shred as long as she doesn't get TOO excited about them. Her seagrass mat seems to be perfect for that. Fits the bill for nesty destruction but doesn't seem to make her more amorous/hormonal as far as I can tell. She also stopped pulling out her chest feathers once the seagrass mats became a fixture.

 

[Happynme]

I used to try to avoid all nesting material but it seemed like Snerky was getting frustrated, so I moderated my approach a little. I let her have things to shred as long as she doesn't get TOO excited about them. Her seagrass mat seems to be perfect for that. Fits the bill for nesty destruction but doesn't seem to make her more amorous/hormonal as far as I can tell. She also stopped pulling out her chest feathers once the seagrass mats became a fixture.

Happy gets shredables. I personally think her happy hut was the culprit on nesty behavior

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Blu, my lovie hen, lays year round. She and Harley are very happy and adjusted, as long as I allow them their nest box. I eliminate fertile eggs and make sure the eggs are thick shelled. She enjoys cuttlefish bone, Manu block and powdered oyster shell.

Yes, I thoroughly believe in allowing birds to be birds, and doing what comes naturally. All life has one goal, and that is to reproduce itself. It is futile and useless to fight that imperative.

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Yes, I thoroughly believe in allowing birds to be birds, and doing what comes naturally. All life has one goal, and that is to reproduce itself. It is futile and useless to fight that imperative.

Wellll, there are same-sex bonded pairs of birds - obviously that union wouldn't be producing any chicks. So I don't think they have only one goal, necessarily! It's the same with humans.