What to do if lovebird is laying eggs?

[walterbyrd]

The eggs are not fertile. Our bird's name is "Punky"



Is it best to remove the eggs, or let bird keep eggs for a while?


We are afraid that if the egg is removed, the bird will want to lay more to make up for what was taken.



We went through this before. We built Punky a nest. After a while, she got tired of the eggs, she seemed to avoid them. When she wasn't looking, we threw them out. We built the nest to keep the eggs from rolling away and breaking.



I guess that went okay, but she laid a total of seven eggs.



Maybe we should get rid of the eggs right away, and remove anything she might consider a nest? Maybe when she has a nest, she want to lay more eggs?

 

[DoubleTake]

Keep it for a couple of weeks or if she starts to lose interest, then take it out

 

[EllenD]

First of all, ditch any nesting material/box/dark places she can get into or on, as that is only encouraging the hormonal behavior that is causing the egg-laying. Just allow her to lay the eggs on the cage floor, they'r infertile so it doesn't matter, and is she wants to lay on them, she'll round them up. But actually having the eggs not in a "nest" type of situation can also help to discourage the laying.

You can either buy some fake eggs online or at a pet shop and swap them out for the real eggs, and when she realizes that they aren't going to hatch she'll get tired of them and then you remove them, or you can leave the real eggs in until she gets tired of them. But the nesting material has to go...

Be sure that she is put on a "Natural Light Schedule" that is strict...you can search this on the forum searchbar for the details, but basically it means that her cage must be near a window so that she can see the sunrise and sunset, and she must wake up at sunrise and be covered as soon as she sees the sunset. This will lessen the hormonal behavior that is causing the egg-laying.

In the meantime make sure that she has a cuttlebone and a mineral block, as she's losing a lot of calcium laying the eggs, and the number one cause of a hen becoming egg-bound is a lack of calcium from egg-laying. And be sure that she's getting a very nutritious and varied diet of pellets, a fortified and varied seed mix as a supplement, and plenty of fresh veggies, with fresh fruit (not citrus) once or twice a week. The egg-laying takes a lot out of them, and you don't want her to become egg-bound.

Avoid all nesting material, boxes, etc., and do not let her get anywhere near any small, dark, warm places when she's out of her cage, for instance under furniture, inside of furniture or drawers, underneath or inside of anything that creates a small, dark place for her, as this will keep her hormones raging...

 

[GaleriaGila]

I like it!

Calcium, no nesting stuff, natural light schedule...

Good for you, for getting right on this!

 

[walterbyrd]

Thank you for the responses.