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Egg laying cocktails

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Egg laying cocktails

Postby Nako » Tue Jan 16, 2018 7:02 pm

So my cocktail Tilly is about 1 and a half now but since September this is her 3rd clutch of eggs she has layer, I moved into temporary housing in June 2017 while buying my first house went through,it was a pretty dark room she was in with a tiny window (we all shared that room) anyway once I moved to a better tenor hoise which was much brighter sheared what was now her 3rd ever clutch, I wasn’t unsurprised giving the environment change, however once I moved My house she layed again about a month later and then againjust before Christmas and now I’m pretty sure she’s about to lay again. She makes a weired squeaky wheel noise a few days before she starts laying, then she’s starts eating loads of cuttlefish and water, then she starts walking around the bottom of her cage then she has extra wet poo and she gets very aggressive, she’s not ill she’s going to lay an egg again, she normally lays around 3 in each clutch but I just feel this is too much. I dnt know how to help her. She lives next to a male conour (reggie age 5)I don’t think she would see another bird species as a possible mate, but they get distressed when I separate them, they talk to each other back and forth they seem to have a strange bond, they also live with 2 chinchillas in the room (they all seem to get on okay no one annoys anyone sleep, temperature is all good) I’ve tried limiting daylight by drawing the curtains earlier to stimulate winter, and I just don’t know what’s too much and any advice. I’ve spoken to an exotic pet vet but they didn’t have much advice. I’m just worried about her mental and physical health and strain this puts on her. Any advice. All my animals are rescue and had multiple homes before me. She has a mirror in her cage, should I remove that I get the feeling she’s be quite upset but perhaps that fact itself means she attached to it, there’s no comfortable nesting spots, she nests in the corner of the cage. She’s a difficult bird to handle, she’s taken a long time to try and tame and she’s no where near tame, it’s going to be a long ride with her but I know she trusts me but she’s nowhere near a bird you can touch, she takes food from my hand and will come out of her cage when she wants to but when she’s egg laying she’s angry and moody, she’s not clipped but she doesn’t fly well, still trying to teach her what a wall is :( but she’s my baby girl, just want to make sure she’s healthy and happy Any advice?
Nako
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 9
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheeked conour male and female cockatiel
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jan 17, 2018 11:56 am

You don't say what her diet, housing and light schedule is but going by her laying already three clutches before she is even old enough for one, makes me suspect [and, please, correct me if I am wrong] that you free-feed protein food [pellets, seeds, nuts, etc] and that you keep her under a human light schedule instead of a bird one which follows the sun. If, on top of this, she is clipped or kept in a smallish cage instead of a flight one and not allowed to come out to fly, you are creating the perfect environment for her to become a chronic layer and, I have to tell you, chronic layers end up dead from eggbinding. No two ways about it. It's a fact because their bodies cannot produce or absorb enough calcium to replace the one lost in the eggs no matter how much cuttlebone they eat [she is getting some sort of vit D3 supplement and not just cuttlebone, right?].

The thing with cockatiels is that they are extremely opportunistic breeders so you always have to be extra careful of the conditions they are kept or they lay off season and even all the time. Free-feeding protein [putting seeds or pellets in a bowl early in the morning and leaving it there all day long] is a no-no with them. You need to feed something like gloop or chop for breakfast and just a small, measured portion of a low protein seed mix for dinner [this time of the year it would be half a tablespoon of budgie mix]. Keeping them to a human light schedule does it, too. They need to have full exposure to dawn and dusk and that means no artificial lights until the sun is high in the sky [about 9 am this time of the year] or after the sun is halfway down to the horizon [about 3:00 to 3:30 this time of the year]. Contrary to what other people might say on the net, it's not a matter of turning off the light or covering the cage to make the day shorter because their bodies need the different light that happens at sunrise and sunset to start or stop the 'internal clock' that tells their body whether it's time to produce sexual hormones or not [they have photoreceptors -cells that react to this special light- in their brains and these photoreceptors are 'turned on' by dawn and 'turned off' by dusk].

Also, when a bird is not flighted and/or kept in a cage for too many hours, you are reproducing the same kind of thing a breeding bird would do - namely, stay in one place and not fly as much as they would during the resting [aka winter] season. Especially if the cage is small... Flight is the ONLY way they have of dissipating sexual hormones [as well as stress hormones] so, when the bird doesn't fly, the hormones remain in their bloodstream for way longer than they should even when you are feeding right and keeping them at a strict solar schedule.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby liz » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:17 am

I feed fruit and green vegetables with softened grain in the morning. In the evening the Cockatiels get seed with a few sunflower seeds in it. Their favorite veggie, of all things, is celery. They don't eat that much of it but chew on the edges. I never know where I am going to find it when I bring them supper.

Get some dummy eggs. Don't remove any eggs until you get them. In the mean time you need to adjust the food and light schedule. I have the Cockatiels light on a timer so it is the same every day.

I have eleven Cockatiels. One of the pairs has been "messing around". I have not found out which pair out of the three pairs it is.
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liz
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 7234
Location: Hernando FL
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby Pajarita » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:24 am

Yes, on the fake eggs and, if you don't have any, just hard boil the real ones and put them back in the nest because, if you remove them, she will continue to lay. But NO on the 'same light schedule' every day. It does stay the same but only for about ten days to two weeks, after that it changes, just as the daylight does.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby Navre » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:56 am

We don’t give the cockatiels chop at the rescue. We had a bunch and none of the ever touched any of it. They didn’t ever bother throwing it around. We have 2 pair now. One layed eggs last year sometime. They are male/female for sure. The other pair seems bonded, but may be two males. They’re the last two of a flock of 10 we had. They won’t be separated.
Navre
African Grey
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1909
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Turquoise Green Cheek Conure
Hooded Parrot
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby Pajarita » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:02 pm

The cockatiels I had loved gloop. They are not big on eating produce but they would end up eating the corn, peas, chopped broccoli and some of the sweet potato and squash -mostly because it would get stuck to the grains they loved.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby Nako » Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:06 am

So her current diet is a cocktail mix of seed, nuts, and a little fruit, she will not eat fresh fruit I offer her every day, she will eat veg like broccoli but often she throws it out, she’s a rescue and changing her diet is very difficult, I give her a little buggie mix and she has no pellets, she is not clipped however everytime I get her out she flys into a wall and scares herself. I have a cuttlefish and mineral stone but I havnt been giving her any vit drops but I will get some to add to her diet, She is in a room with a big window so I have adjusted the light by drawing the curtains and covering the cage to limit unnatural light, I will try some dummy eggs in the cage, I will try and get her out a little more, reggie comes out every day but Tilly is a little difficult so I have been attempting it every couple of days, I’m just worried she will hurt herself flying into the wall. Thankyou for the advice
Nako
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 9
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Green cheeked conour male and female cockatiel
Flight: Yes

Re: Egg laying cocktails

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:23 am

Feed her cooked whole grains mixed with small-sized or chopped veggies accompanied by a different leafy green every morning and just 1.5 level teaspoonfuls of budgie seed at night. Get her calciboost or calcivet asap and dose her three days in a row and once a week after that until she stops laying [her D3 must be depleted by now and, if she keeps on laying, she will produce a soft-shelled egg which she will not be able to pass].

She needs good light during the day [full spectrum CRI more than 93 and Ktemp between 5500 and 6500], expose her to a complete dawn and dusk [meaning two hours in the morning and two in the evening] and keep her in complete darkness after it's dark and before dawn [you will need a cover made out of a good blackout material]. She will also need a flight cage with nothing that resembles a nest in it - and this cage needs to be moved around and re-arranged in the inside regularly so as to distract her from laying.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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