We had a male Cockatiel in with her until around June when for whatever reason he passed away. We're unsure of why he died, but we adopted him only a few months before that. He had a clean bill of health. before he passed, they were showing the tell tale signs of a courting ritual and everything, but nothing ever came of it.
i just noticed about 10 minutes ago that she was laying on an egg. it looks to be normal size for a cockatiel. there is no nest box, so she made a nest out of the wood pellets that we use as a substrate. I know that they can lay non-fertile eggs, but I was curious if a cockatiel hen can store sperm until she is ready to fertilize an egg?
Is there anything else I need to do for her?
2006-10-29 07:16:16 · 2 answers · asked by nanookadenord 4 in Pets ➔ Birds
Thank you for the answer.
Right now it's hard to allow her to have 12 hours of sleep in a dark/quiet room. We had to move out of our house in a hurry and we are staying with my mother-in-law until we can find another house. we pretty much have the second floor, but there is only 2 rooms. We also have children, so they have the second room. Bacon (my son named her) is in our room. I think she gets maybe 8-10 hours of the kind of sleep your talking about. Until we find another place to live, there is not much else I can do.
Either way, thank you for your response 8-)
2006-10-29 10:22:06 · update #1
No, no way do cockatiels "store" sperm for four months, a few days, but not four months. The egg is not fertile. Single hens, especially cockatiels and lovebirds, often lay eggs. In a pet bird it is best to discourage her egg laying since it is a drain on her calcium stores. Try to have her get 12 hours of sleep (in a dark, quiet room) every night. I let my lovebird sit on her eggs for a couple weeks because if I pull them right away she will just lay more. I also save her old eggs and when she starts laying I throw several eggs in with the new one. This way she gets a biological cue that she has enough eggs and should stop laying. Make sure your hen has a good diet and always has a cuttle bone in her cage for calcium.
2006-10-29 09:39:27 · answer #1 · answered by Rags to Riches 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Cockatiels, at longest, can store sperm for four or five days and I believe that's pushing it. The egg your hen laid is definately infertile. There's been stories of hens laying fertilized eggs a few days after their mate had died, but in those cases, as I've stated above, it was no longer than a few days.
Hope that helps :-)
2006-10-30 12:14:03 · answer #2 · answered by white_ravens_white_crows 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋