Cockatiels first clutch

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
My female cockatiel just finished laying her first clutch (a total of 6 eggs). She's 4 years old. I have 2 other tiels and was told that the most recent one is a male. However, he wants nothing to do with the females and did not seem at all interested while the other bird was on the eggs.

I have just recently removed the last of the eggs since I let the female sit on them until she lost interest. However, she is constantly back to her chittering at anything and everything (which is what she did prior to her laying her eggs).  My question is how often will she lay eggs and will she continue to lay them without having mated with a male?

Thank you for your help.

ANSWER: Good job in letting her sit on the eggs 'til she lost interest. This is an excellent way to curb the egg laying which can become a serious, even life threatening health problem.

 There could be a couple things going on with the 'male', first of course being that he's a 'she'.  He may also be immature (generally 1 1/2 yrs is ideal for sexual maturity and breeding although they're capable at a younger age).

 There's no telling how often or how many eggs she'll lay, but it's truly important that she be discouraged.  You never if she'll become egg bound, a condition that quite often leads to death or paralyzation.  It's something that needs professional treatment within a matter of minutes or at best, a couple hours - and that can be difficult when it's at night, on a weekend or holiday.

 Check this link for more about how to stop egg laying:

www.4AnimalCare.org (click the bird tab)

Keep up the good work!!!


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick response and informational sites regarding chronic egg-laying.  However, right after I had sent you my email, the female layed another egg! She tends to lay them in her food bowl so I'm at a loss as to what to do about that.  For the meantime, I put another cardboard box in her cage with some pine shavings as done for her previous clutch.  The male bird is approximately 10 to 12 years old. I'm assuming he's a male since he talks a little bit. He did sit on the eggs the last time but only briefly and still does not have any interaction with any of the females.

I am concerned about the egg-laying since I don't want her to get egg-bound. Should I take the nesting materials and her egg away now and try the light-cycle deprivation as referenced in one of the articles?

Thanks again for your help!

Answer
I've got an entire outline at measures you can take to curb the egg laying so check it out
   www.4AnimalCare.org (click on the bird tab and then scroll down to 'egg laying').

 It's not so much light depravation as it is increasing sleep time.  You don't want to stress them out and end up with a whole different set of problems.

There's a lot of things you can do and I describe them at my site (there's not nearly enough room here ) so take a look and let me know.