Caique egg laying advice

[Caiquetiels]

I swear, I need a class on how to take care of caiques during egg laying. Any advice would be great.

1. Female laid egg on May 20th, and I could tell #2 was there all weekend but she could not pass it. I took her to vet Sunday, and they kept her overnight. She laid it around midnight and xrays showed no 3rd egg. She had a weight of 226 Sun, and it's down to 210 today. She is always 180 grams, for the past 12 years. If no eggs exist, will she lose weight eventually?
2. I didn't see her and the male mate this month. I hard boiled egg #1 day it was laid, but with them ignoring both eggs til last night, is it likely that egg #2 us not fertile? She just started laying on both eggs last night.
3. The vet tech told me I need to somehow make her eat broccoli and spinach, dark leafy greens, which I tried for 3 weeks now. They both hate them. Any idea how to make them eat calcium rich foods?
4. I also need to stop playing with them. They love human attention. I don't want fish for pets. Will I be able to play with them after summer is over? How long do you all play with your birds?

 

[MonicaMc]

Hens do tend to put on weight when they are laying eggs, which is normal. She may eventually go down in weight, she might not.

Sitting or not sitting on the eggs is no guarantee of fertility.

At minimum, eating pellets would be beneficial... but yes, fresh foods would be great, too! Keep trying different ways of presenting the food.

How exactly do you "play" with them? And why do you need to stop?

 

[Caiquetiels]

I discovered years ago that my male caique is allergic to something in bird seed, so I have mainly given both of them Harrison's pellets. The female has been eating them until she laid her first egg, then she quit for some reason. They refuse to eat broccoli or spinach, but my new plan is to make a smoothie and let them drink it. They like smoothies.

I bring them to the couch with me, and they love to be scratched all over, so I need to only pet their heads. And, I have a blanket on the couch because the female likes to chew things, like the couch, so I let her chew the blanket. They both go behind the blanket and rest, they have done this for 12 years and never gotten the itch to lay eggs til this last month. I think I was hanging out with them more since we are on lockdown from the virus. The vet said since it's still spring, and light outside, I need to ignore them until their interest in eggs passes.

The female just started laying on the eggs overnight, but when I'm home she is eating and wants to be outside of the cage. I bred cockatiels 20 yrs ago and their main focus was those eggs, so the caiques are very nonchalant about them but are protective when I change their cage. I have 3 fake eggs on the way.