# Food that contributes to chronic egg laying



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Please share what you know. Mine are laying the third clutch.


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## xxxemmzxxx (Jul 27, 2012)

I always find this a hard question haha because I know millet and egg powder (which I put in soft food) encourages egg laying but at the same time if she's already laying I'm reluctant to remove sources of calcium. I'd get rid of millet (keep your normal seed), move perches, toys etc around in the cage so it looks completely different - this will stop her from feeling safe. Plus increase hours of darkness; cover her cage earlier as this will make her think it isn't a good time to breed.


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## eduardo (Jan 27, 2012)

Anything soft, basically. Scrambled eggs, rice, peas, cooked beans, cooked chicken, noodles...


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

eduardo said:


> Anything soft, basically. Scrambled eggs, rice, peas, cooked beans, cooked chicken, noodles...


I see your point. my birds don't eat any of this stuff anyway. 

I was thinking more towards something that increases hormones level. I was using "high energy breeder food" - can this pellets contribute? 
They have chicks with them so its not that easy to increase night hours a lot. I removed the nestbox and moved things around but it didn't help.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

xxxemmzxxx said:


> I'd get rid of millet (keep your normal seed), move perches, toys etc around in the cage so it looks completely different - this will stop her from feeling safe. Plus increase hours of darkness; cover her cage earlier as this will make her think it isn't a good time to breed.


I will try to get rid of millets. They are out of the cage a lot so they are just checking the house for breeding spots


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## Kiwi (May 12, 2013)

If they have access to a lot of food, like if their dish is overflowing with food or millet... then if you give them a lot of access to it it might make them want to lay eggs.


Are they still feeding the chicks? If the chicks aren't being fed then continuing to feed the pellets to them might be causing them to keep laying. It is a good food to feed to chicks and it gives the parents lots of energy for breeding. If they have a lot of access to this food then they probably realized that it is full of nutrients for more chicks. The extra protein and calcium in the food doesn't help with egg laying. Lots of protein is needed to lay eggs and develop a family.
When they are done raising their chicks... when all else fails and you've uncovered their cage completely during the day, covered them for 12 hours of darkness when they sleep at night, shine an avian full spectrum light on them for 2 hours a day, stopped all soft foods. Then try to limit their food intake by giving them just the amount they need a day for a few days. A combination of these things over the course of a week or a few days is usually when you start seeing results. 
http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Bird-.../Roudybush-High-Energy-Breeder-Bird-Food.aspx


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Thank you Kiwi. 
The chicks are housed with them, so its difficult to feed the chicks but not feed the parents. I don't feed high energy breeder food anymore. One baby still begging for food from her father so he feeds her but very occasionally. The chicks need to eat well as they are just getting to their normal weight after being on the skinny side. Darn it! Looks like I need to feed my chicks this pellets
"It is designed specifically for breeding birds that are feeding chicks, *as well as chicks that are in the post-weaning stage*" 
Out of all the soft food, they get bread.

She has laid already 3 eggs and probably going to lay the next egg, without the nest box, so she lays in random locations and I am removing the eggs from her. Is there a possibility she would lay and lay because the eggs are removed? Would it be better to give her all the eggs and nestbox back so she can incubate and at least stop laying more? The first clutch has 4 chicks, but the second clutch of 6 was all infertile.


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## xxxemmzxxx (Jul 27, 2012)

I wouldn't leave the nestbox at this stage. It looks like she's laying either way and having the box will definitely encourage it; mine will lay 3-4 eggs after I remove the box and will then give up.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

xxxemmzxxx said:


> I wouldn't leave the nestbox at this stage. It looks like she's laying either way and having the box will definitely encourage it; mine will lay 3-4 eggs after I remove the box and will then give up.


are they caged?


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## Kiwi (May 12, 2013)

Yes, birds will continuously lay more eggs to replace the ones you have taken away to satisfy the need they have to have eggs. You shouldn't take away a Cockatiel's eggs unless they are bored with them and show no interest or they will continue to lay more eggs. Just wait until she is done laying eggs, if you saved any of the old eggs you can put them in with her and the additional number of eggs may overwhelm her to stop laying more. If you think the eggs will be fertile and don't want more chicks you can boil the eggs and place them back in there. I wouldn't let her continue to stay in the nestbox though unless the chicks are still in there. It would be encouraging her hormones too much. You might want to move the eggs to another part of the cage like laying a few paper towels on the bottom and placing them on or something.

Does she have a good source of calcium while she is laying so her body doesn't leech calcium from her bones? I would be worried about that if she is laying a lot.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Kiwi said:


> Yes, birds will continuously lay more eggs to replace the ones you have taken away to satisfy the need they have to have eggs. You shouldn't take away a Cockatiel's eggs unless they are bored with them and show no interest or they will continue to lay more eggs. Just wait until she is done laying eggs, if you saved any of the old eggs you can put them in with her and the additional number of eggs may overwhelm her to stop laying more. If you think the eggs will be fertile and don't want more chicks you can boil the eggs and place them back in there. I wouldn't let her continue to stay in the nestbox though unless the chicks are still in there. It would be encouraging her hormones too much. You might want to move the eggs to another part of the cage like laying a few paper towels on the bottom and placing them on or something.
> 
> Does she have a good source of calcium while she is laying so her body doesn't leech calcium from her bones? I would be worried about that if she is laying a lot.


thanks. All this would work if she was caged all day. but she is not. She is used to be out of the cage all day long, she has a place to eat that is not in the cage (She has food bowl in the cage though). She can have enough calcium, from mineral block and green veggies. 

I don't know if she laid an egg today or not. She was out, now she is in, I can't see the egg anywhere.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

How long would the eggs be good for future incubation if they were removed when laid? I know people remove eggs sometimes to have chicks born at the same time. A week?


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Can hen hold the egg inside for some time if she thinks surrounding isn't safe? She was due for the next egg today. She was inside the cage and out. I can't see any eggs and she doesn't seem to be egg bound (but still behaves very hormonal)


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

My hen just laid the 4th egg on top of the cabinet. It was 48 + 6 hours since the previous one.


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## Kiwi (May 12, 2013)

If she is out of the cage all day I would make the surrounding environment in the areas she likes to go lay unsafe because they are making her hormonal too. Like put some of what she sees as "monsters" in those areas to discourage her from going there or block corners and tight areas off with a wad of paper. My 'tiel doesn't like stripes, stuffed animals, rubber animal toys. She will hiss at them and fly away then actively avoid those areas.

I think they can hold it for a few hours, but after that you should look out for egg binding symptoms because they may not have been able to pass the egg. Or they may have been thinking about forming an egg, but the environment became unsafe so they did not lay an egg.

I wasn't able to find the exact information for parrots on how long eggs last when pulled so you might want to make a separate question for that on the forum for breeders to answer. For chickens, the safest number is about a week for pulling. For parrots the hatch-ability rate goes up if you let the parents sit on the eggs for several days, but pulling the eggs usually makes them lay more clutches of eggs. If your hen is a chronic egg layer then you may not want to do that and let her sit on her eggs.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/589180/how-long-can-you-keep-eggs-before-incubating
http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/incubation2.html
http://vetafarm.com.au/artificial-incubation-of-parrot-eggs/
http://www.hagen.com/hari/docu/incub1.html


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Kiwi thanks. 
I was collecting her eggs because she laid them in random locations. Yesterday was a very difficult day. I locked her in the cage when she was expected to lay an egg (2 days after the previous one) but she didn't lay it. Then I let her out. She was very nervious, checking like crazy hidden spots in the house (I guess). Then, she laid it 6 hours later than she was supposed to, in the open location (top of the cabinet). I took this egg as well (and she flew back there and didn't see it and she looked really sad), because it would roll down. It didn't come to my head to put all the eggs into the cage so she could see them. 
Yesterday I thought I would get insane - thats how difficult it was on me too watching her flying back and force in despair. 
So.....after a big think..... I gave up and gave then the nestbox and I put all the eggs inside (4 eggs total). Trillie (the cock) was delighted and excited! They were in the same cage but they didn't stay in the box overnight. Today Cuddles (the hen) looks really tired and sleepy. They don't incubate the eggs but they go in to check on them (like if they would doubt the whole thing isn't going to disappear like eggs disappeared previously). What is more - you won't see any eggs if you peak into the box. They buried eggs under the bedding. I don't know what all this means. I guess they doubt if everything is safe enough. 
The first egg was laid last Monday. 

I will let them decide what they want to do. I tried to prevent the clutch (not in a smart way, I guess), now I am cooperating with the parenthood. Whichever they choose.

Their history: 4 chicks are 9 weeks old. The second clutch was infertile. This is the third clutch (in a row). The problem is that I didn't candle the second clutch at all, so I missed the moment when I needed to apply hormone reducing techniques.


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## Kiwi (May 12, 2013)

No problem glad I could help!
Once they stop sitting on this clutch, then you can remove the nestbox (once you remove it start the reduction techniques) and once you make those areas they like to lay outside the cage unsafe they will hopefully stop laying anymore until the next time you put the nestbox in.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Kiwi said:


> No problem glad I could help!
> Once they stop sitting on this clutch, then you can remove the nestbox (once you remove it start the reduction techniques) and once you make those areas they like to lay outside the cage unsafe they will hopefully stop laying anymore until the next time you put the nestbox in.


"WHen they stop sitting on this clutch" supposes that there is no chicks ready to hatch, which may not be the case. 
Also, number of places to nest in the house could be infinite.... there are millions of way for them to do it. I am not saying they would do it, but they are checking even the coat closet, and I am pretty busy to make sure that each single cabinet stays closed (when kids are almost late for school and lunch needs to be packed, for example). 
Anyway, I got the point and I got my lesson, thank you for advise! I just couldn't imagine that after having 4 chicks out of 7 eggs, they would have 0 chicks from 6 eggs in the second try. 
Right now they are reluctant about the box and eggs in it. They are NOT incubating eggs, so maybe their hormones are already pretty much down.


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