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Help I cant get my lovebird to stop laying eggs2007-11-24 17:19:46

She dosen't have a mate so the eggs are unfertilized and she will not stop laying them. The first started laying at the end of May and I took the eggs out about 9 weeks after that. Then a week after all the eggs were gone she layed 8 more eggs.

Answers:

I have a four year old lovebird with this problem. I will share the things I have done.

1) Reduce the number of hours of daylight she is exposed to. Daylight hours will stimulate the pineal gland in her brain and bring on egglaying hormones.. If you can, put her in a completely dark room for 12 hours a day, ideally. This is hard because if you work or go to school you'll hardly see the bird. But try to get her as much sleep as you can. It has to be dark, not just covering the cage in a room with a light on.

2) Save her old eggs. When she starts laying put several more old eggs in with the new one. This makes her think she has too many eggs already and is a biological cue to stop laying more.

3) I find with my lovie I have to let her sit on the eggs for two weeks. If I pull them earlier she just lays more. Experiment to find out how long your hen needs to sit to get this out of her system. When your hen starts to molt (you'll see lots of loose feathers lying around) you'll know she is done and it is a good time to try pulling the eggs.

Basically, I do all of the above to try to stop my lovebird from laying or at least limit the total number of eggs she lays. Egg laying is a real strain on your bird's body - it takes a lot of nutrients and calcium to make an egg and shell! Egglaying should therefore be discouraged in a pet bird that does not need to be laying. If all else fails, you can have a vet give injections of a drug called Lupron. I have heard it is very expensive, though, and not without side effects. In extreme cases they sometimes spay pet birds but this is a very risky procedure for a bird and not normally done. Make sure your bird has a good diet and a cuttlebone at all times for calcium. Even with my best efforts my lovie still lays about 1-2 eggs every two months. My vet feels this is not too excessive and does not require drug treatment but opinons on this topic differ. Good luck!

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haha my friend has a female cockatiel and she lays eggs like crazy.. i dont think theres much you can do to stop it.. it's not really a bad thing

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She's probably lonely :(

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Take away her nestbox and remove alllll shreddable materials from her cage. Rearrange her entire cage, new perches, toys, food dishes etc. Limit her to 8-9 hours of daylight a day. Put her in a completely different location and/or cage altogether.