Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/7/2006

Question
My parakeet, Olive, is about 6 years old now.  Her mate who I bought about the same time died almost a year ago now.  I have tiels who Olive would talk to through the cage, etc.  She doesn't come out of the cage, though.  The past week she has laid 4 eggs, obviously without a mate.  I have experienced this with Cockatiels but never with a budgie.  I know what to do as far as eggs etc, but I was wondering if I should introduce another parakeet to her.  Would this be a good idea?  And if so, should I wait until she forgets about her eggs?  
Thanks in advance!
Amber
Emmy's mommy
Adoptive mother to Olive, Sunset, Joey, Sarge, Tuff, King and the fish ;)

Answer
Hi, Amber.  Thanks for posting!

How has Olive been doing with the loss of her mate?  This might help you decide what you should do.

However, it mostly depends on what YOU want to do.  Olive can have avian companionship with the tiels...she doesn't NEED a mate.  This is up to you.  With Olive being 6 years old, you wouldn't want to buy a baby budgie for her, so you'd need to buy an older bird.  Whether you can find a tame, older budgie or not, I don't know.  The next question is do you want to mate her and produce baby budgies?  She's getting up there in age, so you need to think about this also (producing/caring for babies might be too hard on her at her age).  Has she produced offspring previously?  Whether you want her to or not, chances are if you purchase a male, eggs/babies will come next more than likely.  You need to think about this carefully for the health and welfare of Olive.  

If you decide to purchase another male, you should place him in 30-day minimum quarantine anyhow away from all your other birds, so Olive would have plenty of time to forget about her current eggs.

Come back with any questions.

Chrys