So many eggs

I've had my cockatiel for about ten years now, and when I went away to college in 2012 I couldn't bring her with me, so she stayed at home with my mother. When I came home the next summer, she surprised us with eggs! Our joke theory is that she thinks we're married and was trying to get me to stay with children. We've only got the one bird, so the eggs were all duds, and we got some calcium supplements to put on her food and some extra cuttlebones and called it done. The same thing happened the summer after that, and the one after that, all the way till I graduated last spring. She always stopped laying/brooding a few weeks after I left again for the next semester, so we assumed she'd do the same thing this year.

Except now it's january and she's still laying. She's laid maybe two dozen eggs between june and now, and has changed nesting spots twice. She's got the run of my room, her first spot was in a low open storage space in my desk, the next was a similar spot just higher up, and now she's switched to under a small table next to my desk. We've still got her on the calcium powder, and she's shown no ill effects or symptoms, but it worries me that she's put out so many and shows no signs of stopping, I can't tell if she's getting enough calcium and vitamins or not, with all the eggs have to be taking out of her.

Any advice to get her to stop laying? Or anything extra to add to her diet to help compensate for the egg toll?

i have a male cockatiel so i dont have this particular problem but id say when life gives you eggs make scrambled eggs. Not sure if you should or can eat them but if you do id like to know how they were. I would try a bird forum to get more info but it sounds like your doing the right things, birds are like reptiles and you cant always tell something is wrong until its too late. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by ja88er

I've had my cockatiel for about ten years now, and when I went away to college in 2012 I couldn't bring her with me, so she stayed at home with my mother. When I came home the next summer, she surprised us with eggs! Our joke theory is that she thinks we're married and was trying to get me to stay with children. We've only got the one bird, so the eggs were all duds, and we got some calcium supplements to put on her food and some extra cuttlebones and called it done. The same thing happened the summer after that, and the one after that, all the way till I graduated last spring. She always stopped laying/brooding a few weeks after I left again for the next semester, so we assumed she'd do the same thing this year.

Except now it's january and she's still laying. She's laid maybe two dozen eggs between june and now, and has changed nesting spots twice. She's got the run of my room, her first spot was in a low open storage space in my desk, the next was a similar spot just higher up, and now she's switched to under a small table next to my desk. We've still got her on the calcium powder, and she's shown no ill effects or symptoms, but it worries me that she's put out so many and shows no signs of stopping, I can't tell if she's getting enough calcium and vitamins or not, with all the eggs have to be taking out of her.

Any advice to get her to stop laying? Or anything extra to add to her diet to help compensate for the egg toll?

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We we had a female cockatiel who did the same thing; she would lays eggs off and on; she did it almost her entire life, she lived to be about 12 years old. She had never been near a male. We would have to take the eggs away from her because she would sit on them and not eat. I don't know if there is any way to make them stop laying eggs.

She's going to continue to do that her whole life, with or without a male, but her eggs wont be fertile.
She's healthy enough to produce eggs and is ready to breed.
They're just like chickens.

Tiels can have problems with egg binding and nutrient loss. Chronic egg laying is not a good thing, but a problem many tiel owners just live with. You might be able to get advice from a vet to keep her healthy, and/or get hormone injections (IIRC, Lupron?)

Avian Avenue is a good forum with many experienced parrot owners, who have BTDT, and will have some guidance.

Thanks for the advice guys! Egg binding is something I've been worried about, I try to get her off the eggs every few hours if she hasn't budged, to make sure she eats and drinks, but it isn't always possible when I'm at work. We took her to the vet about it when she first started laying and they said we didn't have much reason to worry, but it might be time for another checkup, and maybe see about hormone options if those are a thing.

I'll check out the bird forum there, thanks!