Birds and paint

[Fur&Feathers]

Hi, thanks for reading. I have 5 birds (3 recently aquired). 1 Nanday Conure, 1 Sun Conure and 3 cockatiels (2 of which are completely in love with each other ). We are (FINALLY) moving... the place we're moving to is going to have all of the walls painted and new carpet put in prior to our arrival. How soon AFTER all that has been done is it safe to move the birds in?

One more off topic thing... one of our cockatiels, Noel, has laid approximately 8 eggs in the month that we've had her. Is this normal? She's acting normally, eating, drinking, just aggressive when she has an egg in the corner of her cage. (We take the eggs out asap.)

Thanks for reading!

[Argranade]

The smell of nail polish can make a bird very sick so I would say leave the birds out of the room untill you can't smell ANY paint inside the room, make sure there's no paint chips on the floor the birds can nibbled on.

I would leave the room for at least 3 to 5 days or more, maybe try baking some fresh bread and leaving it in the room to give it a more clean fresh smell? lol sorry but I can't stand the smell of paint haha.

I don't know too much about cockatiels but I would boil and leave the egg in the cage till she gets bored of it, maybe add some more toys in the cage so it gets her mind off laying/heat and more into active and fun things, maybe some extra nutrie berries lol.

[Husky_mom]

as far as paint goes..... leave them out until ALL fumes/smells are completely gone...... not even a tinsy bit of it........ good idea about the baking bread

about the eggs, if you take them out it will only make her to lay more to compensate the ones gone, you can boil them, shake them or replace them with fake ones...... if she doesn´t stop laying you may wanna try covering her up for more time..... she doesn´t has a "nest" thing as she is laying them in the floor but removing "nest" looking things helps too.......

is she with a male?..... can the eggs be fertile??

[BitsyNaceyDog]

How soon before you move in will the house be painted? Paint fumes are not near as strong as they used to be and the birds should be able to safely move in a couple days after the painting has been done. If the house has been closed up and you can still smell the paint then open some windows and wait a day to move them in.

As far as the egg laying- first make sure she has a cuttle bone and she's using it. If she has one but isn't using it move it to where she is laying her eggs, she may use it more there. Secondly if she's in the same cage with the male I'd suggest separating them right away. He could very well be the reason she is laying so many eggs. As others have said taking the eggs out right away will only encourage more egg laying. Also the longer days are encouraging her to lay the eggs too. I don't believe in covering a cockatiels cage because they are so prone to night fright (which often occurs when the bird can hear things outside her cage but cannot see them because of the cage being covered). You can try keeping her in a dark quiet room for a few extra hours each day- try to make it a room she is familiar with though as a new unfamiliar room may also cause her to have night fright (something you'll want to watch for in your new house, especially for the first few nights).

[Genny]

About the eggs: I would leave the eggs with her for about 21 days and see if she'll lose interest in them on her own without you having to take them. A lot of tiels will lay eggs and if you take them away before they're finished sitting on them (which takes about 21 days) then they will just lay more to replace the ones you've taken, so just let her sit on them for as long as she will or for 21 days and then you could take them.

[Genny]

Yeah, I forgot to ask you if you have a male and if they might could be fertile or not? If you don't then that's ok....

[SunsetRose]

I would keep the birds out of the room for a few days after you can no longer smell anything. Just because you can't smelll anything doesn't mean the fumes are totally gone, so it's best to way a few days longer to be on the safe side. Just be sure to keep the windows open and fan on to help with circulation and help the fumes get out.

Also, I want to mention that shaking the eggs won't work. I visit a bird forum sometimes and somebody there tried it with their tiel. She didn't want babies and somebody suggested shaking the eggs. She did and now all but one of them hatched. She shook them every day and she wasn't gentle with them. She was only gentle enough to keep them from breaking, but otherwise shook them vigerously.

Your best bet if they are fertile is to drop them in boiling water. This will gaurantee no hatchlings. That is if they are fertile. If they aren't then it doesn't matter.

[Fur&Feathers]

Thank you for all of the responses.

Sorry for being a bit ignorant when it comes to birds and eggs, but don't they need a male to fertilize them?

Noel is the only female tiel that we have, and she is caged separately. The two males are completely in love with eachother. They do everything together and scream frantically when one is taken out of the other's sight.

We've decided not to move into the house that was going to be painted, we are still moving within a month, so the information that everyone has given about the paint is still very helpful.

Noel has a lot of toys, but isn't really interested in them. She also has and uses a cuttlebone.

How do I tell if they're fertile? Someone told me to hold it up to a light and see if there's a spot.

Thanks again.

[Genny]

If you don't ever let her with any of the males then they can't be fertile there does have to be a male for them to be fertile

[Husky_mom]

definately no male = unfertile eggs........ so don´t worry about boiling them or such.....

there is a site with candeling eggs, which is just placing a lamp behing the egg and see through it..... like when you lamp your hand and you can see all red light coming through..... but in the eggs you can see some sort of spot...

the site I mentioned is gone but there is another about other birds you can just google them and they show day by day candeling and progress.....

[SunsetRose]

Ok, no male no worries

Candeling is a usefull technique. Get a bright flashlight, hold the egg up and position it so the beam shines right under the egg so you can see the contents inside.

If the egg is fertile, you will see a dot (which would be the embryo's eye) and some bloodvessels spidering out like vines in the egg. It's best to wait a few days before candeling them because sometimes you can't see anything right away. If the egg is unfertile, you will be able to clearly distinquish between the yolk and the white of the egg.