TEN EGGS now!

[pinacoloda1]

My cockatiel hen,who started double clutching when her other two chicks left the nest,and started walking around the cage floor,and currently are approximately between six and seven weeks old,has laid TEN eggs now,and i have a theory as to why shes doing this. The other baby chicks are still "trampling" the nestbox,they're stumbling over the eggs,walking on them...etc...moma knows any number of her eggs won't tolerate all that..so she keeps laying to replace them..
tell me what you think or if you have another theory..
I do think moma needs her own "space",don't you think? And i dare not put her in with dad..
Anyways ideas please??

Thankyou

 

[karen256]

Is mom still feeding the babies? They should be starting to wean at 6-7 weeks - while you don't want to rush weaning, it's pretty hard on mom to feed the babies and produce eggs and it sounds like you don't have dad in there to help out.
If the babies are starting to feed themselves you might be able to move them away from mom. Did you separate dad from them because of aggression? If he wasn't aggressive and hasn't been separated for long, you could try putting the babies with him to see if he will help feed them. If you can't put them with dad, you can try offering lots of easy to eat foods such as spray millet and soft veggies for them.

In the future, a regular enclosed nestbox attached to the cage size will help protect the eggs more.

You're right that the 10 eggs are almost certainly non all fertile with all the disturbance. That's fine as you don't want that many to hatch anyway. That is more than she could care for, especially without dad to help out in the care. In fact, you might want to consider getting fake cockatiel eggs and replacing some or all of the 10 eggs with fakes as a precaution - just in case they are fertile. If all of them hatch, she would most likely only care for the oldest chicks and let the younger ones starve. You can sometimes deal with this by pulling the older chicks to handfeed as the younger ones hatch but it requires handfeeding at a younger age than normal and has all kinds of risks to the babies. It really is better to just not let her hatch out more than she can care for.

 

[pinacoloda1]

Yes mom is still feeding the youngest chick for some reason,i don't know why,at six weeks he/she is eating on his own..and yea,dad was moved a while back for aggression..but only toward the oldest chick when he started pin feathers..
Well the older two chicks are moving on to their new homes,so thats not an issue any more,but since mom and dad are a bonded pair,I'm wondering if i can put them back togather...or should i be concerned for the eggs?
(I do want at least a couple of eggs to hatch,since I'm losing the two older chicks), the last egg she laid was about two days ago..
Well i do have another cage on standby so any suggestions??

Thankyou