She bit me !

[liz]

Seth, who are you, where are you, and where have you been when we needed you?

The first thing I thought of was the season. I hoped that was all there was to it. I could not imagine my cuddly little girl turning against me.

So if Rambo is 20+ and has not laid an egg he must be male.

Myrtle is not caged so she could find a nest anywhere. Come to think of it she has been spending a lot of time in the cubby hole in the hall way. So I guess I better check to see what she has been doing in there.

Last year I did not give the cockatiels nesting material. They laid a few eggs on the bottom of the cage but kicked the eggs around until I took them out.
The year before they were stealing eggs from each other. None were fertile and they gave up on them. Probably stealing hoping for a fertile egg.

My daughter had a Quaker parrot named Walker for many years. One morning when I checked on my birds he was dead with an egg beside him.

[Wolf]

Males should not lay eggs, it is too hard on them, they aren't built for it.

[liz]

Males should not lay eggs, it is too hard on them, they aren't built for it.

LOL

I was so surprised that I left him there until my daughter woke up. She was just so sure that he was male.

[Wolf]

Sorry about my sic humor. It is too bad that no one was there to help as it might have been prevented, but then again it might have been better the way it came down at least for you and your daughter.

[Seth]

dummyeggs.com is where we got the fake eggs of appropriate size and quantity. We bought one of the nest kits that came with eggs, nesting material (multiple packages), and a melamine nest bowl.

[Wolf]

Seth;
Many of the people who are on here are impaired technologically so if you could make you links clickable it would help them a lot. Thank you.

[liz]

Yes. I don't know about any one else but technology left me when I retired.

[Pajarita]

Here is the link: http://dummyeggs.com/

Now, a couple of clarifications to misconceptions:

1. Only one species of parrot is a determinate layer, the budgie. All the others, as far as I know, are indeterminate (that's why they become chronic layers) so the number of eggs in a nest does not work with them.

2. Breeding season has not started so birds that were kept to a strict solar schedule should not showing any hormonal behaviors - not yet. There were 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight on the day of the 2014 winter solstice (Dec/21/14) and there are 9 hours and 26 minutes today (Jan/9/15). On Jan/16, there will be 9 hours and 35 minutes of daylight (which means a 20 minute increase and which we know to be the minimum increase birds notice -so far, this could, of course, change as we learn more about them but, so far, that's the info) and that's when you will start noticing a change in the birds to the point that some species go into partial molt to prepare for the breeding season (notice I say 'prepare'). This is also the time of the year that canary breeders that breed commercially start manipulating light making the normal increase steeper so they can get earlier babies or more clutches (needless to say, I am opposed to this practice but it is pretty prevalent, unfortunately for the birds).

[liz]

My Zons are not caged so I don't have much control on lighting except to put out all the light and work with one lamp. Last night I put Myrtle to bed 4 times. I have heard Rambo walk around the house in the dark.

[Pajarita]

Then it is entirely possible that she is hormonal and that's why she bit you. But, Liz, are you sure Rambo is a male? Because, in my personal experience, males don't get cuddly when hormonal, only hens do that.