Cockatiel advice, please:)

[sirrahved]

Tandoori has just started laying her first clutch of eggs (she's all grown up!) and now I don't know what to do. Her cage is quite dirty, but she has shown lots of interest in her eggs. Every time a new one comes along, it's her baby. The others are abandoned for the most part. How do I clean the bottom? I don't want her sitting in lots of ick. Do I ignore it? or move the eggs to the bottom of cage and take the tray out? I'm not wanting to take them away from her because I don't want her to be encouraged to lay more.


Thanks for your help in advance!

Devon

[Giselle]

If they're not fertilized and you couldn't care less about the eggs, I'd just go ahead and clean the cage, but replace the eggs afterwards. It might upset her a bit, but, honestly, that might be a good idea. Heck, it's just better if you can discourage her to lay and sit on the eggs!

[Genny]

sirrahved, hi.

I have a cockatiel who has laid unfertile eggs in the past, and she has just recently laid some fertile eggs and they are about 3 weeks old today. So cute!

Anyway, if you want to go ahead and clean her cage just open the cage door, and when she hops out get the eggs and put them in a bowl or something. After you clean the cage out put her and the eggs back in. DON'T take the eggs from her until after 21 days. If you take the eggs before that she will lay more to replace the ones you took and that will rob her from calcium and then that can make her very sick and she could possibly die.

If you have anymore questions about her feel free to ask.

Genny

[Argranade]

They won't realy die from having there eggs taken away, they just might get depressed & sad about it,

Please give her some vitamines & grit because when she layed those eggs it took alot of her weight, since there not fertile you can boil them & put them back afterwards so the eggs don't go bad .. she'll soon enough get bored of the eggs then leave them alone, that's why you can finaly throw them out.

[Genny]

She won't die if you just take the eggs away, but she can get very sick or even die if you do take the eggs before 21 days and she keeps laying more to replace them which usually all cockatiels will do.

[ChrisH]

sirrahved, hi.
Anyway, if you want to go ahead and clean her cage just open the cage door, and when she hops out get the eggs and put them in a bowl or something. After you clean the cage out put her and the eggs back in. DON'T take the eggs from her until after 21 days. If you take the eggs before that she will lay more to replace the ones you took and that will rob her from calcium and then that can make her very sick and she could possibly die.

If you have anymore questions about her feel free to ask.

Genny

Excellent advice. Please do put the eggs back after cleaning to save the repeated laying.