Parrot's in VA

[Pajarita]

I am going to have to disagree. Calcium on its own does not do them any good because they cannot absorb it into their system without D3 as well as a balance of other minerals. My birds do have cuttlebone available to them but they hardly use it as they get a diet very rich in calcium (broccoli, almonds, etc) so I don't really like the grating method as you are kind of pushing them to consume it all the time and I am always very afraid of them getting too much (hypercalcimia), which is as bad as getting too little (hypocalcemia). For laying hens, it's best if you get avian liquid calcium which is specifically made for this type of situation. I've used Calciboost for many, many years and I've never had a single eggbound hen but you can get any other avian calcium brand, if you like. Use it for only 5 days and then stop and, if she keeps on laying, do it for another 5 days but no more than that (this is always taking into consideration that you are giving the bird vit D3 regularly). You can't use it every single day because there have been birds that have lost the ability to move the calcium in and out of their bones to produce the eggs so, even though their ionized calcium levels are fine when tested, they still get eggbound).

[Wolf]

Would take Pajarita's advice on this over mine. She knows more than I do.

[Hayden_69]

So, it's been exactly two weeks since Squeaks laid her first egg. She's up to three now. She is showing no sign's of giving up on these eggs! She is a very dedicated mama bird right now and only gets up to eat twice a day and back on the eggs she goes. Should I just take them away? I don't want to make her start plucking or create any stress on her. Thoughts?

[Wolf]

I would not take them away, per se, what I would do is take one away when she is eating and freeze it and use a magic marker to put a mark on it. Then take it out of the freezer after about 30 minutes and replace it the next time she eats and take another one and continue to do this until all of the eggs have been done this way. Then wait until she stops sitting on them and then remove them completely. The reason for this is if you just take them while she is still sitting on them she will just lay more eggs to replace them and you create a chronic egg laying bird and this places her at risk.

[Hayden_69]

That's a good idea. Thank you! I'll try doing that today and let you know how it goes in a few days

What's weird is, some times she will kick the egg's out and will sit and lay on her foot toy shoe and have no care for the egg's. Then, she will gather them up and lay on them. We did take one of the egg's away last week, so she only has the two now.

[liz]

young birds without mates who lay eggs seem to consider them as theirs without knowing what they are and what to do about it. Lola laid eggs in the food dish an did not want me to take them. they got kicked around util they broke.
someone laid eggs under a piece of news paper in the bird room. I don't know who did it because each flock member took his turn sitting on them.

[Wolf]

With many parrot species when you take the eggs or part of them they will continue to lay eggs until they have a full clutch of eggs. How many eggs that is depends on the species of parrot. This gives the impression that they can count and their is evidence from other studies that suggest that they can indeed count.