Stopping Parakeet Breeding

Question
I have a male and 3 female parakeets.  Two of the females are laying eggs, and they seem to be fertile based on the signs I've read.  After they lay and if the chicks hatch and all, I don't want them to breed anymore.  Do I have to take the male away from the females?  Is there some sort of sterilization or injection a vet can give the male or females?  Also, I'm confused; how many eggs will a parakeet lay?
Thank you!

Answer
Hi, Sean.  Thanks for posting!

First of all, your females, or at least one female, is likely laying infertile eggs.  Female parrots can lay infertile eggs without mating with a male bird.  Male keets usually only pair-bond with 1 female...pair-bonding is when the male feeds a female beak-to-beak.  Is this male feeding one of the females like I described?

Are these birds laying their eggs on the cage bottom?  You can candle eggs when they are about 7-10 days old to see if they are fertile or not.  Hold a light source behind the eggs and see what you can see.  Experiment with an infertile chicken egg from your refrigerator.  If your keet eggs (after they are 10 days old) look like the chicken egg on the inside, they are infertile.  If you can see a dark spot with red veins running through any eggs, these eggs are fertile.  For any eggs laid, just leave them where they have been laid until the birds abandon them on their own.  Then remove them and throw them away.  If you remove them before the birds abandon them, the bird(s) will continue to lay and lay.

If you don't want them to lay fertile eggs, yes, you need to remove the male from the females.  Females can still lay infertile eggs though even if/when the male is removed.  An avian vet can give females a shot to stop egg laying for a period of time, but laying infertile eggs can be very hard on a female.  Your best bet would be to separate the male completely so the females can't see/hear him in order to stop their egg laying.  However, just separating the male from the same cage might help...it just depends on the birds involved.

In order to help prevent egg laying, keep the light source for your birds down to 10-12 hours per day (keep them in the dark 10-12 hours per day).  Do not keep anything in the cage that could resemble any type of nest.  

Keets will normally lay 3-6 eggs in a clutch.

Come back with any additional questions.

Chrys