Egg laying bird

[Cody123]

Hi,

My alexandrine parrot laid an egg last night (she is the only bird we have). It's the first time she has done this and we've had her for nearly 2 years. I have heard that you should leave the egg in the cage for her, otherwise she might lay more eggs. Is this true?

Thanks
Cody

 

[LaManuka]

Hello Cody, thanks for reaching out about your Alexandrine! At 2 years old she has probably just reached maturity and egg-laying is now something you’ll need to keep an eye on. Now that she has laid one egg there very well may already be another one forming so she may lay another in the next day or two. I am going through a similar situation now with my lorikeet so I feel your pain! Your best bet in the short term is to replace her eggs with plastic or ceramic dummy eggs if you can get them. If you can’t get those you can take her egg/s and boil them, let them cool down and give them back for her to sit on. The idea of this is so she will sit on the eggs for a week or two and when she realises nothing is hatching she should lose interest and eventually get back to normal. Boiling her eggs means if she accidentally breaks the shell there won’t be a nasty smelly bacteria-laden mess for you to have to clean up!

Once this phase is over, if she has anything in her cage or outside of it which even remotely resembles a dark nesty cosy corner it will need to be removed, otherwise she could go back into another cycle of egg-laying. I don’t know how tame your bird is but if she’s the snuggly type you need to ensure that you only pet her around the head and neck or she may view you as her mate and go and lay more eggs!

I hope you’re able to get her to quit laying eggs because there are many health-related issues that can arise if it becomes chronic.

 

[Cody123]

Thanks for the information LaManuka. Is it normal for there to be a little bit of blood in the faeces after laying an egg?

Thanks

 

[LaManuka]

Oooh jeez Cody i don’t know about that! It’s normal for her poop to be maybe bigger and looser than usual but blood in the faeces - you would need to refer to your avian health care professional for that one!