Egg laying budgie

[johnlpool]

Hi

We’ve just come home to our surprise our 3 year old budgie has laid a single egg. Our question is do we need to supplement her diet with anything?

[tweetiepiesmom]

Yes, she will need extra calcium and protein. Do you have a mineral block and/or cuttle bone for her to chew on. Will she eat eggs? If you've not fed her that before, hard boil the egg longer than you would if you were going to eat it. About 15 minutes is good. Chop it up into very small bits and offer her both the white and yolk. The egg will keep in your refrigerator in a container with a tight fitting top for about a week. Other also scramble the egg without adding oil. Just make sure it is well cooked.

Others with more experience with baby budgies will be on to offer you advice. Good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing baby budgie pictures!

[Hezz]

Is she an only bird, cage mate, one of many, are you wanting her to breed?? … we need much more info before giving any advice that is relevant.
Extra calcium will be needed if you can’t break the breeding cycle and/or you wish her to have a clutch.
A single hen can still produce eggs without there being a male present, but of course they won’t be fertile and it is better to stop her early rather than let things run their course because sometimes that course just doesn’t stop.

Once we know your situation, we can help you through what you need to be doing to help her.

[johnlpool]

Oct 30, 2021 0:47:44 GMT Hezz said:

Is she an only bird, cage mate, one of many, are you wanting her to breed?? … we need much more info before giving any advice that is relevant.
Extra calcium will be needed if you can’t break the breeding cycle and/or you wish her to have a clutch.
A single hen can still produce eggs without there being a male present, but of course they won’t be fertile and it is better to stop her early rather than let things run their course because sometimes that course just doesn’t stop.

Once we know your situation, we can help you through what you need to be doing to help her.

Thank you for this. We do have another but they’re both hens so the eggs won’t be fertile. It’s the first time she’s done this but we don’t want her to breed

[Hezz]

Okay, so long nights, shorter days are needed if the egg-laying continues. Nothing that is enclosed in their cage, nothing that could be construed to be a nest by her. Mix up the cage furniture - new toys, run perches in different ways to how you normally set up their cage, new perches can help as well, if she has a favourite sleeping spot change it, if she has a favourite swing or toy remove it, move and/or change food and water receptacles, even place the cage in a different spot in the room where they spend most of their time. No treats - millet sprays or honey sticks or the like. What you are trying to achieve is to bust her comfort bubble and put her under a small degree of stress so that she goes back to thinking survival rather than “time of plenty, time to procreate”. It is easier to break a laying habit in the early stages than to wait and see if she is going to stop. If you have another cage, a short separation from her cage-mate won’t hurt either.

You will feel like a heel for being so mean, but much easier on both of you if it happens now and for a much shorter time than you may need to go through all this later on, and hopefully you will go another three years or more before needing to address the problem again, hopefully never. Give this a go for a month, obvious longer if she does still manage to pop out some more. The more she lays the longer you will need to implement the changes. Good luck, fingers crossed for success. 🤞