# When do you remove suspected DIS eggs?



## timtam (Oct 15, 2012)

My tiels had a clutch of 4 eggs of which 1 was infertile and 3 were fertile. I suspect the 3 fertile eggs are now DIS as they have a pale grey tinge and its been about 25 days since the 1st one was candled as fertile (other 2 eggs shows signs of being fertile within a few days of that).

I've been waiting for my birds to abandon them so that I could remove the eggs and nest box entirely. But, today they have laid another egg and have since been mating again.

Am I right in assuming that means the older eggs have been abandoned so I can remove them? I'm almost positive they are DIS but I was giving them that little bit of extra time just to be certain.

Also, is it safe for her to be laying more eggs already. 3 weeks before this clutch of DIS eggs she laid an infertile clutch so I'm worried that laying another clutch so soon could be detrimental to her health. I'd love to have some baby tiels to handraise but not if it puts her at risk.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

timtam said:


> My tiels had a clutch of 4 eggs of which 1 was infertile and 3 were fertile. I suspect the 3 fertile eggs are now DIS as they have a pale grey tinge and its been about 25 days since the 1st one was candled as fertile (other 2 eggs shows signs of being fertile within a few days of that).
> 
> I've been waiting for my birds to abandon them so that I could remove the eggs and nest box entirely. But, today they have laid another egg and have since been mating again.
> 
> ...


I would remove the DIS eggs and pack her nest with dummy eggs if you have any. This way she can still sit on her third clutch if she wants but will not lose calcium to unnecessary laying. Dummy eggs for cockatiels can be found on ebay. Also check the sticky section for hormone control techniques to avoid chronic egg laying, it might be as simple as reducing their daylight hours.


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## timtam (Oct 15, 2012)

Thanks Darkell1777. I've been reading up on hormone control techniques because I was planning to start that as soon as they gave up on these eggs. Unfortunately, they beat me too it and started laying again already

I think I'll start that now anyway and get some of the dummy eggs. Laying 3 clutches in a row cant be good for her.


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## clawnz (May 28, 2009)

Darkel777 Has given you good advice.
Flooding does work and one of the only ways I managed to stop one of my hens.
When I say I flooded, when she laid I took that one out and put two dummy eggs in. When I got to 13 dummy eggs(I know this somehow got to an odd number) she stopped for the rest of that season.
What sort of hormone control were you thinking of trying?

At some stage you have to consider taking the nest away. Hopefully you get to the end of the breeding season, and can then remove the nest.

18 to 21 days to hatch from the time she starts sitting full time. which should of been after two or three eggs were laid. I am surprised they have not thrown the old eggs out. Or at least moved them into a corner in the nest box. They do seem to know when eggs are bad! Is this their first year of trying to raise young?


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## timtam (Oct 15, 2012)

I hadn't heard of flooding before. That's something else I can try. 

I just need to get the dummy eggs now. I'll probably have to order them online so it could take a few days. If the current egg/s show signs of being fertile by then do you recommend letting them sit on them? 

Until they laid this egg today, I was planning to remove the nest box, reduce daylight hours (they are currently in our living room with us so I'd need to move the cage each night), move things around in the cage etc.

This is the first breeding season for both of them. They seem to know when the eggs wont hatch (because they lay more) but they leave the old eggs in the nest and lay the new ones amongst them. That's how I got caught out with the first infertile clutch. I was waiting for them to give up before I removed the eggs and nest. Same thing has happened again with this clutch of DIS.

I did remove the old eggs today. I opened them and yes, they were definitely DIS. They were fairly well developed but not at the ready to hatch stage. I'm not sure what went wrong. From the time the first egg was laid there was always at least one of them sitting on them.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

If you can (since you're on ebay lol) you can get a humidity gauge (they're fairly cheap) and use that in the box. Humidity could be the reason that the eggs aren't making it to hatching. Laying can be detrimental to a hen, but that's not really what takes it out of the parents. A hen on a good diet can lay indefinitely. What tires out the parents is feeding the babies. I bet if she was able to hatch a baby out, she'd probably stop laying for this season. I agree that giving her a break is a good idea. There is always next season.


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## Darkel777 (Jun 7, 2013)

I was at work at the time, it's hard to post links on my smartphone. You can find cockatiel dummy eggs here. But the parent site of the seller is here.


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## clawnz (May 28, 2009)

It is common for some birds to have some sort of trouble the first time around, even the second laying and raising can be a little bit of trouble.
It is common for young birds to fail in some way.
Breeding is not as easy as some will tell you. Mind you it can also work with no problems.
As for leaving the eggs in if they are fertile that is up to you. 
Are you ready to hand feed if the need arises?
I would not worry to much at the moment. Just keep watching the old eggs to make sure they do not get broken and pollute the nest box.
The trouble is if you remove them she will more than likely lay replacement ones. And as she has already started laying again? Best not push it until you get the dummy ones.
You may find she rejects the dummy ones, more so if you have good and dummy in the nest at the same time. Just keep putting the dummy ones back under her. Also it is a good idea to warm them up before putting them in as she will know the difference in cold and warm when sitting on them.

I think that by Roxy's claim about "A hen on a good diet can lay indefinitely" She means they could lay seasonally. They should at no time be allowed to lay continuously. 
There are way to many threads over the bird forums that will tell you of the huge number of Cockatiels that have passed away from egg laying issues to ignore them.
Cockatiels can become chronic layers and Yes due to this even on a great natural diet. they can get egg bound from lack of calcium in their little bodies. They are not egg factories. Diet cannot replace it fast enough no matter what you feed. And I doubt even calcium injects will keep it up. Been there done that.
Loosing Roxy (prolapse) and coming so close to loosing Tinkerbell to egg binding well up inside her. (eggs pressing on her sciatic nerve. (she is damaged for life) Then seeing Cindy start relaying when the babies in the nest were only three weeks old was enough!
Roxy started laying just four weeks after I adopted her. First egg was while she was on my shoulder at the rescue. Soft shell. Three soft shell eggs later and it was decided to put her on Lupron to give her body a break and for me to be able to get her condition up, by feeding her decent natural diet. She stopped laying for three months. But still a horny little critter, so I got her a mate feeling that it may be best to take her through a breeding cycle and then try stopping her. I did not like watching her take that needle in the chest and certainly was not thinking implants.
Her and Max mated and she laid good solid shell eggs and the babies were super. But I guess the damage had already been done 9and this maybe from before I adopted her) as a year later she had a prolapse and died on the operating table.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I think that by Roxy's claim about "A hen on a good diet can lay indefinitely" She means they could lay seasonally. They should at no time be allowed to lay continuously.


This claim originally came from srtiels, and she got it from the Ritchie Harrison medical textbook. The exact quote is on page 25 of this link: http://web.archive.org/web/20090206124003/http://avianmedicine.net/ampa/29.pdf It says:


> Hens on a completely nutritious diet can continuously lay eggs for years without deleterious effects. In most cases, however, malnutrition and the progressive stress and physiologic demands of egg laying ultimately will compromise the hen.


There's a tendency for people to quote/paraphrase the first sentence without adding the second sentence, and to me it's like fingernails on a blackboard. I'm not convinced that the first sentence is even true, although I have no evidence in either direction. But in the real world there's no such thing as a perfect diet anyway, and I think it would be pretty rare to find a hen who actually did lay unlimited eggs without being harmed by it in the end.


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