Expert: Riley - 3/31/2007

Question
I have a male and female budgie that have had 4 babies in November, 4 babies in Feb. and she just laid another 5 eggs.  How can we stop this mating?  Its getting out of hand, soon we will have 11 birds flying around. haha. Some of the babies didn't make it but if all 5 eggs do that will be 11.  Please help.  Can we remove the eggs? Or can we get the male/female fixed somehow?  We let them out to fly but the father tries to mate with the babies.  What do we do?

Answer
Hey Laurie,

I think you should separate the dad from the rest. Or take away the nesting box. Yes, you can remove the eggs and eventually they will get too cold and die. But you really should try to stop this mating, or the female could become egg bound. That means that she has a low about of calcium in her body therefore the shell cannot form around the yoke inside her. Then when she tries to lay them, she can't, and she will die in a matter of hours. So please supply a cuttle bone in the cage at ALL TIMES. And please take away the nesting box, if possible. Otherwise, put the dad in a differenet cage. Best of luck.

Riley
(ps) Budgies should only lay 2-3 cluthes of eggs per year!