Single female egg laying

Question
My cockatiel began laying eggs about 6 weeks ago. She laid the 1st 3 in a 3 week period on a bookshelf, showed no interest and we discarded them each after about 2-3 days. 10 days ago she laid another egg in the cage and has laid a total of 6 since then in her cage. We have let them in the cage as this time she is sitting on them and has become very agitated and will attempt to attack. Because we have 2 Chihuahuas we have kept the cage closed, to protect her because she really goes after the one dog, and also because she only poops when she comes out and leaves a huge mess! When can we expect that she will stop nesting and things will get back to the normal mayhem around here?

Answer
Cheryl,

You have done an excellent job so far.  I would leave the eggs for at least another 10 days.  Eventually she will "give up" and stop sitting on the eggs.  Of course, if she breaks any, you will want to remove those, but otherwise, leave her nest alone.  When you begin removing eggs, do it one a day.  If she begins to lay more to replace them, stop removing them until she decides that she's wasting her time sitting on the eggs.

You might want to read my article, called Incessant Egg-Laying in Cockatiels.  http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/incessant_egglaying.html

Good luck!

Cindy