Expert: Marie Charon - 11/1/2009

Question
My b/f and I have two parakeets that we've had for a few years now. They were gifts from me to him. Things were fine mostly in the beginning. Both are female; one is very dominate, the other is mellow. The mellow one tends to dig out her food sometimes, why does she do that even when we refill her dish? The dominate one can be a little mean too, always pecking at me... Lately they both started their laying season. The Mellow one lays about 2 or three eggs during the laying season, the dominate lays only 2. But this year, more and more eggs have appeared. We've count 15 so far, including the one that was laid today. The mellow one isn't mothering them, just the dominate one, so I assume their hers. But is it normal for so many eggs to be laid this year?

Answer
Well if both birds are female, then they are unfertilized eggs, and will not hatch. You can just remove them. As to how many eggs, it is a large batch but keet's can lay 6+ eggs at a time.

Females tend to be more "pecky" than males who are generally milder in temper.

As to the one digging out her food bowl, she is just relieving her need to forage for food, Keet's especially love to lay in and play with their food and food bowls.  I can never put much food in my keet's bowls as they are always laying on their food in the bowls so I have to clean and change the food numerous times a day.  Don't worry about it.

You should probably get foraging toy's in the cage if you don't already have some.