Expert: Riley - 3/21/2007

Question
Hi, I have had a female budgie (named Nimbus) for at least 6 years. I had a male before but the never quite got along and never mated. He passed away (he was older) and my female budgie lived solo for 2 years. I decided to get her a male companion again, which I should have done alot earlier. They get along great.

Lately in the last few weeks, Nimbus has been doing strange things. She has been tearing up the paper I line the cage with. Very similar to what my hamsters used to do. I had a theory that she might be trying to make bedding so I put a nesting box in the cage for a week, but she seemed to ignore it...so I took it out of the cage.

Today I went to go feed my birds, and to my surprise found a n egg on the bottom of the cage! Unfortunately the egg was broken. I am not sure how the egg got broken. It isn't quite  cracked, but looks more like a hole has been chewed out of it (just speculating).

After finding out that Nimbus laid an egg (first time ever in 6 years), I am thinking of setting up the nesting box in a bigger cage that I used to house my budgies in and move them tomorrow. However I am thinking they will not get accustomed to the cage in time and that the rest of the eggs for this clutch will be lost.

Is this a good/okay/bad idea?

I hope Nimbus will be okay. I've had numerous budgies for pets since I was a kid. I love budgies. This is the first time any of my budgies has laid an egg. It is exciting but is scary too. Raising and watching baby budgies would be awesome, but if it came down to it, I would choose Nimbus's health over the excitement of raising budgies anyday. I really never expected anything like this to happen.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you so much

Answer
Hey Jeff,

I would just but the nesting box on the cage you have now, if Nimbus lays the eggs on the bottom of the cage than that's that. However, how many eggs are there so far? As for Nimbus's health, you must always have a cuttle bone in the cage at all times or she may become egg bound. This means that she doesn't have enough calcium so the egg shell can't form around the yoke inside her, then when she tries to lay it, she can't, she becomes very stressed and ill looking and will die in a matter of hours. I also like to offer my birds parsley or celery by just hanging it from the top of the cage with a twist tie. Anyway, if there is anything else I can help you with let me know!

Riley