Caique egg laying

[Caiquetiels]

I think my female is about to lay an egg. She is eating at 2am in the pitch black, is up to 226 grams. Two of you mentioned I could boil the eggs so she could sit on it. How is this done? I don't eat eggs and have not made hard boiled eggs since the 80's.
I'm also wondering if I will need to separate male after egg is laid. I bred cockatiels 3 times in the 90's and had to put female in night shift, male in day shift.
Once this is over, if I stop petting their backs, and keep them with 10 to 12 hours of sleep, can I break them from wanting to do this in the future? They are 12 1/2, first time they have been hormonal.

 

[LaManuka]

If you go down the track of boiling, you can do so on your stovetop in a saucepan. Start with the egg in the water at room temperature and steadily bring it to the boil to prevent the shell from cracking. Once it’s boiled for about 5 minutes or so let it cool and mark it with a felt tip pen, that way if she lays more you’ll know which one is already boiled. The eggs may or may not actually be fertile, but boiling them will prevent your hen making an unholy mess if she breaks the shell. Or you can order faux eggs from dummyeggs.com, they seem to have a pretty good range of shapes and sizes to suit.

I would just carefully observe how they interact once any eggs are laid rather than separating them straight away, I know you will be prepared to intervene if the relationship goes downhill. Once this cycle is over, remove all nesting material or anything that even resembles it, and yes only pet on the head and neck. Unfortunately that may not prevent another laying cycle since you have both genders, those hormones can still go into overdrive! You can also speak to your avian vet about the possibility of your hen getting a hormonal implant done but even that sometimes is no guarantee. With any luck at all there won’t be any eggs at all but these are crazy times so she may have a little gift on the way for you!

 

[Caiquetiels]

I feel so bad for the female. She's been eating like a pig, and I can hear her at 2am eating pellets. This morning, I put more pellets and fruit/veggies in her cage and she wanted to come out and play. I have not seen them mate recently so maybe she'll just have one egg.

 

[Caiquetiels]

Good news, the egg was finally laid today. The female was up to 228 grams, ate like a pig til the end. I put food in their cage and I assumed they were going to try to kill me, but the female came up to me, I pet her head, and both of them were gently getting into position to sit. Thank you all for the advice. Since I have no time to help care for them, I plan on hard boiling it, which breaks my heart, but I live 35 miles from work and the pet store won't take them til they are 2 months old.

 

[LaManuka]

Well thank goodness for that! Chances are she’ll have another one (or more) on the way too. When Lilly lays I usually wait for the second egg before I start boiling, that way I can leave her sitting on one while I boil the other so she doesn’t get frantic about where her eggs are. I don’t blame you for feeling bad about boiling them, I feel bad about it even though I know Lilly’s eggs are infertile! But there is already an oversupply in the pet trade and so many unwanted pet birds out there so I think it’s the best thing to do in the long term. At least this way your hen will get to assuage her hormonal longings, and many eggs don’t hatch anyway even in nature so she should eventually lose interest and get back to normal.

Meanwhile make sure she gets some extra calcium for shell formation and her bone density, important for prevention of egg-binding. I find the easiest way to do that is to scrape either some cuttlebone or mineral block over their food, and she’ll ingest it herself or when the male feeds her.

Your hen will likely be sitting on her nest for a good few weeks so do keep us posted won’t you?!

 

[Caiquetiels]

I can see a bulge in her belly, so she will definitely have #2 soon. I was amazed, her egg weighed 14 grams, and the female lost 14 grams. I got home and they were not sitting on it, I grabbed it and boiled it and they didn't care. I fed them, hung out with them on the couch while the egg cooled, and later on, they got super protective of the egg. I gave them a towel since the bottom is not comfortable, so not sure how I will get egg #2 out.

I'm keeping a diary since these caiques are way different than raising cockatiels. I'll let you know what happens, and thanks for your help.