Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/3/2007

Question
I have a parakeet that has recently laid an egg. She layed her first one on the bottom of the cage so I put a nesting box in by her until she explored it and felt comfortable going in it. I took her egg from the floor of the cage and placed it exactly the same way inside the nesting box. She went into the nesting box and found it a few minutes later and started laying on it. She seemed happy with it being in there but the next day she started rolling it around roughly and apparently lost it. When I noticed she wasn't laying on it the next day and that she tried to throw out most of the bedding(I'm assuming in an attempt to find it) I peered into the box and found it in the corner, so I put it carefully back to the middle of the box. She seen what I did and went in to investigate. Once more, she layed on it but lost it again. I did the same thing as I did before but this time she just "tasted" the egg and then ,as I seen later, ate it(This all occured within three days after she layed it). Was she away from it too long and it died? She recently has layed another egg in the same spot on the floor of the cage as she layed the first. Should I try and put it in the box again but buy different bedding?  

Answer
Hi, Jessie,

I think the problem is you are putting bedding in the nesting box.  Most keets don't like substrate in their box.  Try removing the bedding leaving the nesting box bare on the inside and see what happens.  You can try putting the egg laid on the cage bottom in the box once you remove the bedding, but she may abandon this egg, too.  Just depends on the bird.

If this bird is a single female, she is laying infertile eggs and none of the eggs she lays will hatch.

Chrys