Anyone know about celestial parrotkeets breeding habits?

[nat]

I rehomed a male and female a couple of years ago and the hen really wants to breed.
However I don't want to let them have offspring as I don't want the problem of finding good homes for them. Unless they are hand reared, people don't seem to want them as aviary birds as they can't be housed with budgies and other mild natured birds.

Anyway, Juliet the hen is laying eggs all over the place. Under the paper, in the seed pot, drops them on the floor randomly.
When she made a proper nest under the paper I removed the eggs as they were layed and replaced them with dummies, but by disturbing her nest (which I had to in order to clean the cage) she just moved on to a different place. I don't want her to get sick from constant laying.

If I gave them a budgie type nest box is it likely she would use that type of box? In which case it would be easier to replace eggs with dummies and let her sit a round out.
Or do they prefer a different kind of box. Should I place it high up, or on the floor?

[Deleted]

I don't know about celestial parakeets but I know you can get implants to prevent laying in parrots. Maybe that might be an option worth looking at.

[nat]

What are implants?

[Deleted]

Hormone implants, a bit like the birth control implants for women. I have heard that some people have chickens implanted, in particular ex battery hens who are in danger of prolapse or have previously prolapsed due to over laying.

[nat]

Ah, that might be worth looking into if its not too expensive :-) As I have about 60 animals I kinda have to work out what is priority vets attention and what can be dealt with without the vet as there are always unforeseen emergencies every now and then :-(
I'm giving her plenty of calcivet in the water at the moment :-)

[Deleted]

It's the risk of prolapse that is the biggest worry. Continued laying can weaken her insides.

[Deleted]

Found this Nat. www.internationalparrotletsociety.org/breedingplets.html

[nat]

Yes I think that would be a problem :-( I'm hoping if I can get her to nest in one place and sit on the dummies then she'll quit laying for the 20 days or so after laying the round and at least get some time to build up resources again.

[nat]

Thanks for the link Starlingqueen :-) You beat me to the post as I had to run to the kitchen in the middle of posting to rescue the dinner lol :-)
It does sound like a normal budgie nestbox would work for them. I have very large boxes. I think that will be the first move...to see if she'll lay in there and let her have a 'plastic egg' round.

[Deleted]

I hope it works for her Nat. Shame you can't breed them but I understand your worries. I will only be breeding my budgies once, or twice depending on how may they have. I will keep them all as I wouldn't want to part with them. If I breed more than that I would be over run.

[BudgiesBuddy]

Any picture Nat?

[nat]

I put up a nestbox this afternoon and the cock went straight to it and has been trying to persuade her in. I've put the 2 dummy eggs she has already in there and she looks ready to lay another pretty soon. Its so tempting to let her hatch a couple of eggs Starlingqueen, but I can't fit another cage in for fledglings :-( let alone bring myself to rehome them
Thats when I stopped breeding budgies too. I wanted to keep them all and ended up doing so with the later rounds, and the last 2 I rehomed have now come back to me! Full house!
No pics yet BB but I'll get some in the next few days :-)

[BudgiesBuddy]

That would be great

[nat]

Juliet has laid an egg in the nestbox today and having burried the 2 dummy eggs yesterday in the shavings, she has found one and put it in her little nest. I will remove the real egg tomorrow as I don't want to disturb her right now as shes still rather wary of the whole nestbox thing. At least shes laying in there so will be more comfortable :-)

[stace]

ARen't they lovely. Are they smaller than budgies?