Nita's Nest - Tiel FAQ 3

COCKATIEL FAQ

(Frequently Asked Questions)

My female bird has started laying eggs. What should I do?

This was in reference to a singly kept pet bird. Some hens kept alone as pets will never lay even a single egg. Others, sometimes even before they are a year old, will lay clutch after clutch. This depletes the calcium in their bodies, quite possibly to their detriment. Even barring that, when a bird spends 5 weeks out of every 2 months laying and sitting it is not a lot of fun for us, and has to be frustrating for her.

There are several things to do. First, make sure she does have calcium available in the form of cuttlebone and mineral block. Next, you want to try to get her out of breeding mode.

Rearrange the things in the cage. Move the toys, dishes, perches... whatever you can change to "shake things up" a bit. Move the entire cage to a different spot or a different room. And most importantly, you must limit the daylight hours for the hen. Give her no more than 8 hours of light. If that means covering the cage at a set time every night, or moving the cage to a naturally-lighted room, you must do it in order to break the cycle.

Another important thing is to not remove the eggs as she lays them. She will want to lay a full clutch (4 to 7 on average), and if you remove the eggs she will likely lay more than she normally would have, in an attempt to complete the clutch. Normally a hen in this situation will lay a clutch, sit on it (let her do this on the cage floor - do NOT give her a nestbox as that will only encourage her to lay), and eventually tire of it, usually after about 3 or 4 weeks. Once she realizes they are not going to hatch, she will abandon them, and that is when you should remove them and implement the steps outlined above.

I have a brother and sister cockatiel pair, and they've started mating. What do I need to do?

First of all, siblings should not be allowed to breed. Any bad points or weaknesses in the birds are likely present in both birds, though they may be things not outwardly apparent. When there are so many cockatiels available for breeding, why start out working with circumstances that are less than optimal?

You have choices here; one of them being to split them up. Another is to re-pair them with unrelated birds. Another is to make sure you do not encourage the behavior. In other words, do NOT give them a nestbox, and follow the steps in the previous question to discourage the hen from laying. In the event that the hen does lay, throw out the eggs as laid and replace them with dummy eggs that you either buy or make from clay.

My unrelated pair have started mating. Do I need to do anything or give them anything special to let them have babies?

If you have carefully considered whether or not you really want them to breed and have decided that you do, you should provide the pair a nestbox. I think the birds prefer the wooden ones. They are usually around 10 to 12 inches square, or possibly rectangular, and about the same in height. We made ours, so we could incorporate the features we wanted. The most important of these was an inspection door on the side that would be facing front. The cover should be removable for thorough cleaning. The box is best placed outside the cage, with an opening cut into the cage to match the side opening of the box. I like to place the box near the top of the cage, and all the way to the rear. I match up the opening hole with the topmost perch, so the bird can stand on the perch and peer into the box.

To the box, I add a liberal sprinkling of Sevin (sold at feed stores) to keep the box mite-free. I add about 3 inches of shavings over the Sevin powder. If Sevin is unavailable, use a Mite spray for birds.

Make sure there is a cuttlebone and mineral block in the cage.

Don't be too nosy! Many birds won't tolerate an owner that can't keep his nose out of the box. Leave them alone, and try to get a peek when the birds are out of the box.

How many eggs will my pair lay? How long till they hatch?

The average is 4 or 5, but they may lay as few as two or as many as 9. First clutches are often smaller, as are clutches from older birds (10 years or older). Eggs are usually laid in the early morning, and are laid every other day. Don't be surprised to find the hen's poop gets rather vile during this time. Once she spends most of her time in the box, she usually will hold her waste in for long periods of time. When she does come out and "let it fly", the size will be huge and it will likely be smelly as well. In fact, this is often a clue that breeding is in full swing.

I count 18 days for incubation, but you must remember that hens often do not begin incubation until they've laid several eggs. What I do, is mark the calendar at 18 days from the day of the first egg laid. I put a question mark there, and an arrow going to the right. This is the very first possible hatch date. I use this as a reminder to pay attention at that cage and watch for babies. My tiels have almost always hatched their kids after just 18 days of incubation (counting the days from the last egg laid till the last baby hatched will tell you this), though others say 18 to 23 days is possible.

On the day the babies are likely to hatch, I usually give a bit of eggfood to the pair. Once I know that babies have hatched, I give the parents as much eggfood as they can consume, several times a day.

The babies are<1,2,3,4, etc.> weeks old. Should I start handfeeding them?

Because the babies are generally not all hatched on the same day, you will have kids of different ages in the nest. I like to pull them before the oldest is more than 2 1/2 weeks old, which usually means they average 10 days to 2 weeks. Babies 3 weeks old or older are much harder to start feeding, since it doesn't seem to come naturally to them until a few days have passed. At 10 days, a baby will eat from a bent spoon at the very first feeding.

I use a bent spoon rather than a syringe. I believe it allows the baby a more natural feeding response. Some people think it's messier than a syringe, but I don't agree - especially in view of the fact that if you start handfeeding them at 10 days to 2 weeks they get the hang of it right away. There is very little mess.

The questions on this page deal with breeding...

Anita M. Golden