Tricky Kakariki

[Loz]

I feel that Chocobo needs her own thread now, she is her own little flock in terms of her needs of care and attention, and the amount of energy needed to look after her!

To re-cap: Chocobo is a 9 months old kakariki, female, friendly, highly energetic and now, regrettably, trapped in something of an egg-laying cycle. If I had to guess, I'd say that the cycle was triggered by extra daylight, the abundance of a new and much beloved food source (sweetcorn) and the availability of a suitable nesting site (under her aviary, which is mounted on casters and stands on a carpeted floor).

I'm five days and four eggs into the cycle. I am now look at the following arrangements put in place to break the cycle:
Space under the aviaries blocked off and for the past two hours, Chocobo-proof.
Curtains drawn at 6pm to cut down the daylight period.
Withdrawal of sweetcorn except as a rare treat.

The aviary fitments get rearranged about once every four weeks, to coincide with the regular deep cleanse of the aviary. There's not much else I can do to alter Chocobo's environment unless I move her upstairs for a time. I am loath to isolate her in this way.

After the past 48-72 hours, my nerves are shot. Chocobo isn't much better off, I had to rescue her in the kitchen earlier - she had one of her long claws trapped in a cupboard. She is attempted to tunnel into or under *everything* - even me, if I sit down on the floor near her!

Stop Press: she's just dropped another egg, this time onto the floor of her aviary. Poor little love.

[Marianne Marlow]

I do hope you manage to stop the egg laying cycle. It's not good for Chocobo

[Loz]

Thanks, Marianne.
No egg this morning, not that I was expecting one this soon after the previous one.
Chocobo is still looking for suitable places but she is also paying more attention to me today, which I think is a good sign.

[Loz]

Having a better day today!

[Marianne Marlow]

Do you ever stroke Chocobo on the wings or back? I read that this could make hormonal females lay eggs.

[Loz]

I'm not allowed to touch Chocobo.

She determines how much, how far and when anything happens but my hands are not allowed to touch her. She's allowed to touch though - those are the rules!

[Marianne Marlow]

I should have known that

[Loz]

Another egg in the night, on the aviary floor but it's the first in 48 hours (that I've found).
Chocobo's weight has been sliding down towards what I consider more normal for her but some way to go.
She is still obsessed with finding a nesting site and with seducing Eeyore but in between times she's more her normal friendly, playful self.
I hope that she's getting there.

[Loz]

She's found a way under the aviary again. Sigh.
I can see how part of tomorrow is going to be spent. Meh.

[Loz]

A better update than I thought I was going to be giving follows.

I'm painting the back bedroom which means windows open, all doors shut. I came downstairs to check on the birds ...
lounge door was open.
Oops, naughty I said to myself, that's a breach of airlock protocol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 budgies ... no sign of any chocobo. Panic.
Checked upstairs as I suddenly decided I had left the bedroom door open and Chocobo must have slipped through. Nope, bedroom door shut.

I found the little stress-inducer- she had somehow found a way under her aviary again. I was too relieved to be cross.

Moral of the story is, you're going to worry no matter how good your airlock protocol might be.

[Ira]

Reminds me of the time Munchy decided to forage on the floor underneath my foot whilst I was on tiptoe and I only knew about it when I felt something soft brush my sole as I was lowering my heel! Fortunately slowly. I was most definitely cross.
But more relieved than cross the time that he got stuck down behind a radiator. So he's had both responses.


Chocobo! You are being such a little minx!

What are you doing with the eggs when she layes them?

[Loz]

I'm taking the eggs away when she's otherwise engaged and disposing of them.

I've had two friends ask me if I fry them or scramble them - they refuse to confirm that they are in fact joking. Ugh.

No eggs for three days now. I'm hopeful things are going back to normal although she still searches for a nest site.

[Ira]

Lol, scramble them and feed them back to her so she gets her resources back?

If not, she might get bored of them if you let her sit on them for a while. Potentially. Fortunately Gwen hasn't tried laying for the sake of it, and hasn't even invited anyone for the naughties in a while, but that means I have very limited advice on how to help. I have heard that making it colder to simulate winter conditions can help.

It is somewhat unfortunate that a good diet can stimulate laying, whilst also being one of the things that helps protect a hen bird from complications if she does lay.

[tweetiepiesmom]

I had read that with a budgie that you want to break the egg laying cycle, you should boil the egg(s), let them cool and replace them in the nest for the hen to sit on. She'll give up sitting on them soon but it will stop the egg laying cycle. Don't know how true that is because I've also read where breeders have hens that lay one batch after another. Is that what happened to poor Penny, Marianne Marlow?

[Hezz]

Apr 21, 2022 16:31:41 GMT tweetiepiesmom said:

I had read that with a budgie that you want to break the egg laying cycle, you should boil the egg(s), let them cool and replace them in the nest for the hen to sit on. She'll give up sitting on them soon but it will stop the egg laying cycle. Don't know how true that is because I've also read where breeders have hens that lay one batch after another. Is that what happened to poor Penny, Marianne Marlow?

Not necessarily the way it works, although it might work for some, often if one clutch doesn’t hatch and everything else remains the same, she will just try again, since her oestrogen levels are still going to be in “mum mode” for a chronic layer. The hen needs to be put into a state of minor stress/survival mode to break the want to reproduce. So while leaving the eggs in situ, or replacing them with dummy eggs gives the hen something to sit on, it isn’t changing her instinct. To do that she needs the outside influences that tell her it is a good time to breed to be changed.
It is easier to break the cycle early on, before the body gets on an egg-making roll. Most hens can be snapped out of it relatively easily if caught early enough, but some are just determined little madams that just need to raise a clutch.