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The odd couple

970 views 11 replies 3 participants last post by  tielfan 
#1 ·
Hello everyone! So I have an interesting situation...I have an outdoor aviary and decided to let my 8 year old pet female cockatiel live out the rest of her days in the aviary with the rest of the birds. I had no idea she would befriend/pair with a male cockatiel I intended to pair with another female. I have never in the many years I have had her seen her lay an egg and when I went to check nest boxes their were 4 eggs!!I know they are hers as her and her mate take turns sitting them. I have a round-a-bout time frame when they were layed but it seems like they are past due to hatch. I am not sure what to do?? I talked to a cockatiel breeder before putting her with the others and was told being how old she was that she wouldn't breed and probably wouldn't pair up.

Do I leave the eggs in their and see what happens?? I feel like they are over-due to hatch...
 
#3 ·
I would candle the eggs. When you say live out her days....how long do you think tiels live? The longest living tiel is 36 yrs old (I think that's the one that holds the record) and we have several on here that are in their 20s. She's got quite a lot of life left in her.
 
#4 ·
I had no idea Tielfan! I was always led to believe that around 7 and older they quit breeding! Thank you for your response.

Tielfan & Roxy Culver how do I go about that when her or her mate is sitting them? Like in terms of not freaking them out and causing them to break eggs?

And Roxy Culver I didn't mean for it to sound like she was going to pass away anytime soon she has always been a really good family pet so we kept her indoors with us. Since I and my brothers have gone off to college I wanted her to make some friends since we couldn't constantly have her with us. :) I helped my grandpa convert his old chicken coop into an aviary for her and the other birds we have. She will always have a place to be happy and have friends!:tiel5::) Thank you for your response Roxy Culver!
 
#5 ·
They will NOT be pleased when you invade the nestbox. An untame bird is likely to flee, but a tame bird is likely to attack you, and the eggs will get trampled during the attack. So be prepared to make them leave the nest quickly to reduce the risk of damage.

Some people use a spatula to scoop the attacking parent toward the door. I find it easier to wear gloves, push the parent away from the eggs and then pick them up if they haven't already decided to leave (be careful not to pick up any eggs/babies while you're doing this). Cockatiels are usually very dedicated parents, so this disturbance does not normally discourage them from coming back into the nest and resuming their duties. In fact you'll need to plan how you'll keep them away long enough for you to check the eggs without them coming back in.
 
#9 ·
Ok so I candled 2 eggs out of the 7 that were in their!! I was shocked to find that many. And of course both the parents had to be in their and could not get them to leave the nest box....So one egg I candled I saw blood vessels forming. The other egg I didn't see anything formed inside. I was planning to go back later to do some more candling in hopes both parents wouldn't be in there to make things more complicated.

If their are a few bad eggs will the parents throw them out? or push them to the other side of the nest box?
 
#10 ·
No, as the eggs provide warmth for the good eggs and babies that hatch. The only time I remove eggs from a nest is if there are too many or there are dead in shell babies (babies that started to develop then died in the egg.) Eggs that are clear are nothing to worry about and since there are seven eggs, any new eggs aren't going to show any development yet. No luck in getting the birds to leave the nest with a spatula or gloves? It's really best to get them out of the nest and block the hole until you're done.
 
#11 ·
I tried the gloves and the male would scuttle into another corner and would try to get me where the glove didn't cover! I will use a glove and spatula from now on...he's persistent and fiesty. Thank you Roxy Culver for you help! I feel a little more cockatiel savy! :D:rofl:
 
#12 ·
There might be two clutches in there - one that was laid several weeks ago and failed to hatch, and a new one that was started recently and is fertile. If that's the case, some more eggs may appear before it's all over. If you put marks on the existing eggs, you will be able to tell which eggs are newest if more appear. Use a felt tip pen on the big end - the tip is soft and won't damage the egg if you're gentle, the ink is nontoxic, and that end has the air cell anyway.

If too many eggs accumulate it might be difficult for the parents to keep all of them warm, since they only have so much body surface to put on top of the eggs. Within a few days, you will know whether any of the current eggs are infertile. At that point you can remove the infertile eggs if you think there are too many eggs in the nest.
 
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