My bird is a 1.5 year old female parakeet. She lives alone in her cage but has weekly or monthly “play dates” with other parakeets for about an hour at a time. Last week she laid her first egg.

Prior to the egg being laid, I noticed a change in her droppings. They were less frequent and very, very large in size. However once the egg was laid, the droppings are much closer to normal sized now.

Shortly after (about an hour after) the egg was laid, she “pooped” out some sort of discharge. It was mostly clear, with a little bit of white gel looking stuff in it, and a little tiny bit of blood. This hasn’t happened again since the initial egg.

I am mostly wondering will she lay another egg?

I am pretty sure that the egg is infertile because she doesn’t spend enough time around male birds, but I could be wrong.

Also, I don’t really want her to become a “breeder.” She is very tame, gives me “kisses,” and she knows several tricks. I would really like her to stay this way. I also do not plan on getting another parakeet. Lately she has become more grouchy than usual, and I would like this behavior to go away. She usually doesn’t mind when my hands are in her cage but lately she has been lunging at me if I get too close.

For some additional information, I used to keep a cut down cardboard box around her cage to collect the seed shells constantly falling out of her cage. Starting about six months ago she began ripping apart the cardboard box in her free time. (She usually doesn’t do this, but she knows how to open her cage doors and would sometimes escape her cage play in the box while I wasn’t home. However, she hasn’t been escaping her cage in the last few months, she says inside until I let her out, for now anyways.) At first this ripping behavior was cute but then it started to get messy with little shavings everywhere, so I threw this box away, and got a new one. Throwing away the shavings made her temporarily very upset. After a few weeks, she began to rip apart the new box. However, after she laid the egg (inside her cage on the floor, not in the cardboard box) I took this box away too because I didn’t want her hiding another egg in there that I wouldn’t see, and because this box again was getting very messy.

I haven’t taken the egg away yet, because I read this may make her want to lay more eggs. I really don’t want her to lay more. She hasn’t really been tending to the egg at all, and spends most of her time sitting on her perches playing with her toys, or grooming, and I haven’t seen her near the egg at all (at least while I am around).

When can I take away this egg? I don’t want to make her upset, or make her want to lay more eggs.

Also I read online that changing the birds’ cage around will make them not want to lay eggs. However, I re-arrange her cage every few weeks. I am constantly rotating her toys in and out of her cage. So the fact that she would lay an egg in an un-constant environment is very strange to me. Also, about a week before she laid the egg, she spent a week with her cage in a different room of the house. This also doesn’t make sense to me.

Also I read online that bringing a dog around the bird will make her too scared to lay eggs. I have two dogs, but they are not allowed in the room where her cage is. She has seen the dogs before, and she hears them barking every day. So I don’t really understand this either.

As far as food goes, I feed her a mixture of seed, dried fruits and veggies, and pellets(but I don’t think she eats these). I’ve tried to offer her fresh fruits and veggies but she is insanely afraid of them, she will even fly out of her cage to get away from them. So now I just mix dried ones into her seeds. Since she laid the egg she started to chew on her mineral block, which she completely ignored for the last year. Also I just bought some kind of dried egg/bird protein that I am now mixing with her seeds, because I want her to regain her strength after laying this egg.

I basically want to know what I am doing right, or what I am doing wrong. Also will she lay more eggs in the near future? And when can I take away the current egg?

Can parakeets get abortions if it was absolutely necessary?

I have no idea if parakeets can get an abortion....

I suppose you could scramble their eggs, so to speak bu I don't know why you would. Abortions are an affront on God, no mater what the species.

LOL

Female keets can lay eggs when they come into breeding mode with or without a male. The change in behavior (the grumpy behavior) is because she is in breeding mode.

All of the precautions you spoke of are suggestions that quite often work, but not a guaranteed deterrent to egg laying.

The reason that she might continue laying (one egg every other day or so) is because in nature they will lay a clutch (usually 4 to 6 eggs) and then start sitting on them. If she continues to lay you may need to take her to your vet to get hormone treatment for her. Laying eggs is very hard on hens and should be discouraged for the good of the bird.

The behavior of chewing up the box is natural behavior of a female that wants to dig out a nest for her eggs. In nature they would chew out a hollow to nest in.

Taking the egg away doesn’t in itself make her want to lay more eggs. It is that she has a certain number of eggs that she must lay for a clutch and she will keep laying until she feels she has a clutch. Of course there is always the possibility that this is a one time event. I would watch for more egg laying and if it continues I would take her to the vet.

Ok let me ask u a common sense question ..if u were pregnant would changing anything environment etc keep u from having that baby...geeeeesh..changing things around isnt gonna make her stop...she has to lay until she decides she is done..dont feed a variety of seed to help her get out of the mode of laying..but because she is u will need to make sure her calcium intake compensates for that. Try to get some extra calcium onto seed..also its best to let it run its course now..one egg every other day will be laid, till she is done..the trick is to try to make sure they DONT come into breeding condition and a LOT of time the abundance of foods we feed does that. So once u have completed this cycle ..resort to feeding just a good balanced mixed seed and not so many extra goodies all the time. Maybe offer some goodies once every two weeks for a day but thats it. Good luck..many of us have been where u are now. Dont panic giggle..dont keep switching things it wont make any difference. Good luck

I think that once she is already laying, rearranging things might not work. But rearranging often BEFORE breeding mode/egg laying does help. They don't feel there is a safe enough place to start laying?
And most definitely added calcium is needed during egg laying. Scrape cuttle bone into her seed, hard boiled egg chopped up WITH the shell.

wow VERY GOOD ADVICE there kk.,..and again i cant emphasis enuf..dont bring a bird into breeding conditions with a breeders diet of foods...which MANY folks do...and dont realize it.

BLR, i was wondering if u knew how long the breeding mode usually lasts for? my parakeet has laid her 1st clutch[6 eggs] ending of August-(none hatched). she then went on to lay her 2nd clutch[5 eggs]ending of September- [again none hatched]. i decided to have her stop laying just incase she wanted to continue, so i take her box out along w/ all the eggs of her 2nd clutch. it's been 4 days since, and this morning i saw that she started laying again, but because there's no box, she laid on the bottom of the cage.

any advice?? please i really didn't want her to lay again b/c i no she's becoming weak from all that laying.